Into the Depths
by alanw6616
Summary: So good news first, Minato and Kushina are alive. Kushina had twins and the leaf has a new Jinchuuriki due to Minato sealing the Kyuubi inside his daughter. Bad news Minato and Kushina are both unable to use chakra and their son, Naruto has been taken far away from the village and has no intention of going back. How will his family deal with a darker Naruto? (I don't own Naruto)
1. Stolen

The chaos had ended, thanks to the effort of the fourth. Konoha could finally rest the Kyuubi had been sealed away and the Hokage and his wife were both still alive, even if they were unconscious. The village was so glad that the destruction was over that no one noticed two figures jumping over the wall carrying something with yellow hair.

"This is going to be the easiest pay-day ever." The man holding the bundle said.

"I know all we had to do was get the little brat while the Hokage was unconscious." The other figure said. "What's his name anyway?"

"The Hokage's wife said Naruto I think." The figure hold Naruto replied.

"What a stupid name let's just get him back to the village."

The two figures stopped in front of their home village Iwa. The sun was high in the sky it had taken them a little over two days to get here even with them running nonstop. They walked through the crowed street. They walked towards the largest building in the village, the Tsuchikage tower.

The two Iwa Nin made it to the Kage's office. Behind a desk sat a very short old man. "Hai, Tsuchikage." They said as they entered.

"Is that the package?" The Kage said. Both ninja nodded. "Then bring it here." The ninja carrying the package put it on the Kage's desk. The old Kage unwound the blanket revealing a baby with spiky yellow hair and blue eyes. The Kage looked at his stomach for a while. "What is the meaning of this?" The Kage said in voice that promised death if they did not answer.

"What do you mean Tsuchikage?" The Iwa Nin said, only his ninja training kept him from stuttering.

"I mean why isn't the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki in front of me!?" The Kage said his anger rising.

"I'm sorry, Tsuchikage." The Iwa Nin said bowing his head. "We must have gotten the wrong kid. We just thought the Hokage would have put the Kyuubi in his son not his daughter."

The Kage suddenly calmed down. "What do you mean his daughter?"

"It turns out the Hokage's wife; Kushina had twins, Naruto and Michiko." The ninja said hastily.

"Well then we have a problem." The Kage said putting his hand together. "What to do with the boy? If he's not a Jinchuuriki then I don't want him, so we not going to keep him. We could kill him, but it wouldn't help the village in any way unless we reveled that we kill him and we obviously can't do that. So I guess we should get rid of him." The Kage smiled to himself. "And I know exactly where to put him. The Kage lifted his hand and an anbu appeared. The Kage whispered something in his ear and gave him Naruto. The anbu took him and disappeared.

* * *

*1 day earlier Konoha *

Kushina slowly opened her eyes to adjust to the blinding white hospital room. She had a huge headache, but delivering twins and having the Kyuubi escape she was likely that's all she had. She looked over to see Minato lying in the bed beside hers. He was still sleeping and she had no intention of wakening him. She was glad he was still alive as she thought back to the events right before the sealing.

Minato was doing it the Dead Demon Consuming Seal. Kushina had begged him to stop, but he refused to listen. Minato was going to seal the Kyuubi into Michiko because Kushina was too weak and Naruto who would have been the better candidate for the Kyuubi had been taken home due to Minato's Hiraishin. So they had no choice but to seal Kyuubi into Michiko. Kushina was fully prepared to see Minato die after that, but for some reason he didn't and Kushina was prepared to ask him why after he woke up.

Kushina only thought right now though was seeing her two children and if on cue a Medical Nin walked through the door.

"Kushina I'm glad you're awake." The Nin said. "Now I know you what to see your daughter, but you need to know something first. Your chakra is shot to hell we don't know why, but because of this you won't be able to control it anymore. So needless to say you can't really be a ninja anymore." The Nin finished looking rather sad.

Kushina could guess that the Kyuubi breaking out was the reason her chakra was screwed, but that's not what worried her. "What do you mean daughter what about my son?" She said shocked.

The Nin looked puzzled. "What do you mean you only had a baby girl, right?" The Nin said.

"No! I had twins where is Naruto! He should be at are mansion." Kushina started to panic.

"That was no baby at you house." The Nin said.

Kushina couldn't think. What had happened to Naruto? Was he alright? Kushina jumped out of bed and ran over to her husband and started sacking him. "Minato wake up! Naruto missing!"

"Kushina please don't do that he needs to sleep." The Nin said trying to stop her.

Minato woke up. "What's wrong Kushina?"

Kushina was starting to cry. "It's Naruto he's missing!"

Minato suddenly became fully aware. "I'll go get a search party ready." Minato climbed out of bed even against the medical Nin's advice and stared heading for the door.

"Minato why don't you Hiraishin there it will be faster." Kushina suggested.

Minato looked door at the floor looking ready to cry. "I can't." He said so softly that Kushina barely heard.

"What do you mean?" Kushina said.

"In order for me to live instead of taking my life I offered the shinigami my charka. I can't use it anymore; I deiced that seeing my kids grow up was more important than being a ninja." With that said Minato left the room.

*Land of Rivers*

An Iwa anbu is carrying Naruto to a certain village as per the Tsuchikage orders. The village is a perfect place to hide Naruto. It's not really a Ninja village and no one ever comes there unless their merchants. The village Naruto is being taken too is Takumi Village. The village that supplies weapons to most of the ninja world. It's true that because of the skilled craftsmen that now live inside the hidden villages the economy of Takumi Village took a bit of a hit, but they still have all the mines needed to make the tools in mass orders which no other village can compete with. So over all their economy is still really good.

The reason Takumi Village is such a good hiding place is because very few ninja actually go inside the village it's mostly just merchants that buy the tools and sell them to the hidden villages. Also Naruto will probably work in the mine his entire life since there isn't really any other job he can take, especially becoming a ninja. Takumi Village is always in need of more miners and they take anyone. So the Iwa Nin just dropped Naruto off at the orphanage inside the village without any problems and headed back to Iwa. The only other thing he left was a card with Naruto written on it.

* * *

*Konoha*

Kushina was on her bed with Michiko in her arms. She was crying the search for Naruto came up empty-handed. The only thing they knew for sure was that Naruto was taken by someone. Kushina was crushed by this news she hadn't even had Naruto for a full hour before he was taken. It must have been a new record.

Minato walked into the room and sat next to Kushina. "How'd it go?" She asked him.

Minato sighed. "I told them what happened, but even without my charka they still think I should be Hokage."

Kushina looked at him strangely. "Why wouldn't they just because you can't use jutsu anymore doesn't mean you're any less of a hero. You can still run this village because you're a great man. Unlike me who was in the hospital when my son was taken." Kushina started to cry aging.

Minato pulled her into a hug. "This isn't your fault so don't blame yourself, besides we'll find him and we still have Michiko to raise and I'm sure that she'll want to find her brother as much as we do."

Kushina wiped her eyes feeling a little better. "Yeah, I'm sure she going to become a great ninja just like you and have lots of friends to help her along the way."

* * *

* Takumi Village 6 years later*

Naruto was excited because today was his first day in the mines. He had spent six years at the orphanage learning about the village and other useful thing like reading and writing and of course how to correctly mine. He was finally old enough to do so mining and since he was a worker he would get a small apartment. He was wearing black shinobi sandals, grey shinobi pants and black shirt with red lines going down each sleeve. Takumi Village didn't sell too many bright colors since the dust in the mine would just cover them up. He was currently on his way to go see the closest thing this village had to a leader, the Mine Boss.

Naruto was standing in front of a man with a very long brown bread. "So you'll be working in the mine?" The Mine boos said.

Naruto could barely contain his excitement. "Hai!" Naruto said.

The Mine boss just chucked at the boy. "Well as you know almost all men in this village are miners and the women are craftsmen. Do you have what it takes to make this village proud?"

"Hai!" Naruto said aging.

"Alright then here is the key to your new apartment and the keys to enter the mine. Just go down there and you'll be assigned a work station." The Boss said handing Naruto some keys.

"Thank you, sir." Naruto said and ran off.

The mine was huge it braced off in every direction for miles and went down so far Naruto couldn't even see the bottom. Now there were stairs for people to go down to the lower floors, but there was also a flat surface alongside the cave wall. Naruto saw two men go downthe vertical surface without any trouble at all. Naruto was amazed at the ninja. Ever since he found out this village had shinobi Naruto wanted to be one. The problem was that Naruto didn't know anything about being a ninja and there was no academy to teach him. The only thing Naruto knew for sure was that there was some kind of test he had to pass to become a shinobi. That was the reason Naruto was so thrilled to come down here. First all ninja who weren't on missions came to the mine and the mining itself would help him become stronger.

Naruto got his position and walked down one of the many tunnels. One thing Naruto noticed though was that there wasn't any miners in this tunnel are the other tunnels he past had plenty of miners so why didn't this one. Naruto was about to start mining on his own when her heard the sound of metal hitting rock. Naruto moved up a bit towards the source of the sound and sure enough there was someone else there.

He looked only a little older than Naruto probably by a year. He was in a lot better shape than him too. He wore brown shinobi sandals, dark blue shinobi pant with a kunai holster on his right leg. He had a grey shirt with an unzipped brown jacket it. He also had a headband tied under his black hair. Naruto suspected that the headband was originally white, but the dust in the mine had turned it into this sandy color. Overall he looked like he born to miner.

"Excuses me, can I ask you a question." Naruto asked.

The boy stopped mining and looked at Naruto. "So you're the new guy who been assigned her. I guess you can ask me some stuff, But first my name is Katsu Riku."

"My name is Naruto and I was wondering why you're the only miner here."

"Because this place almost never has any minerals in it you've been assigned here because they don't want you to fuck anything up." Riku said.

Naruto was a little mad about that, but decided to look past it. "Then why are you here."

"Because I don't have to be careful to make sure I don't hit anything. I not planning on staying a miner of long I'm becoming a ninja."

Naruto had stars in his eyes he couldn't believe how lucky he got finding someone who wants to be a ninja just like him. "That's great I want to be a ninja too." Naruto said excitedly.

Riku looked at him like he said he wanted to eat a rock. Then he started laughing. "You a little brat wants to become a ninja that's funny. I mean look how short you are." Riku put his hand over Naruto head to prove his point. "Wait a minute you're short and you're a miner you're not a ninja you're a dwarf." Riku started laughing even harder.

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled and threw a punch at Riku face, which he caught and flung Naruto to the ground effortlessly. Naruto was mad, but he wasn't an idiot he knew that was no way he could win. So he just waited for Riku to stop his laughing fit.

After a while Riku calmed down. "Listen I don't think you get it, begin a ninja in this village is far different than any other village. First there is no academy you have to do all your learning from books or get help from another ninja. Second since were not really a ninja village we get different request then the ones regular ninjas get, mostly once that involve some not so good thing. So if you're going to become one you better be ready to kill anyone. Last in order to become a ninja you have to take the genin exam which is held once every year. You don't get a jounin sensei like you would in any other village. You can have a team if there's enough graduates, but you don't have to. After that you just start doing C-ranked mission."

Naruto took in every word. "I still want to be a ninja if I have to become a little evil then I don't mind and for all the other stuff I'll just be really strong. I have one question though don't genin do D-ranked missions."

Riku just smiled at this. "That's only one D-ranked mission boys can do and you're doing it right now, it's mining." Naruto was a little surprised by this but realized it should have been obvious." The one girls can do is making weapons.

"So why do you want to become a ninja?" Naruto asked.

"You see my old man is a ninja so I'm kind of expected to be a ninja, but there's a different reason I want to become a ninja." Riku said.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"You see this village doesn't have too many ninja, but girls love ninja especially strong once. So if I'm become a ninja then all the girls will fall in love with me." Riku had a dreamy look in his eye.

Naruto thought about it and it seemed pretty cool to have a bunch of girls adore you. "Now I definitely want to become a ninja."

Riku chucked to himself "alright kid I like you so I'll help you out a bit." Riku handed Naruto a piece of paper. "If you can make something happen to that paper with your chakra then I teach you about being a ninja."

Naruto looked at the paper it didn't look like anything special, but Naruto wanted Riku to teach him. "Alright then I'll get on it right away." Naruto ran off to star training with the paper.

"Wait!" Riku said. Naruto stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?" Naruto replied.

"Just because you want to become a ninja doesn't mean you can ditch being a miner." Riku said pointing to a pickaxe. Naruto rubbed the back of his head embarrassed that he forgot what he was down here for. Now that Riku got a better look at his face he could have sworn he'd seen it somewhere before. Well he'd just have to look into it later.

* * *

*Konoha*

"Michiko come on you don't want to miss your first day at the academy." Michiko groaned under her bed sheets. "I thought you wanted to be a ninja with all your friends, but I guess if you don't want to you can always be a merchant." This got Michiko out of bed.

"I'm coming Kaa-san." She yelled. Michiko had long blond hair and very blue eyes and six whiskers marks on her cheeks. She got dressed in blue shinobi sandals, light blue shinobi pants and an orange shirt. She ran downstairs and took her seat at the table and started eating breakfast.

Minato and Kushina were both sitting at the table just watching their daughter eat. "So first day at the Academy are you excited." Minato asked her.

Michiko finished what she was eating. "Hai, I'm going to be an even better ninja then you two." Minato and Kushina chuckled at this. Michiko knew that they couldn't use chakra, but she didn't know how it happened. Minato and Kushina had decided to wait till she was a genin to tell her about the Kyuubi. The village knew about Michiko status of being a Jinchuuriki, but due to Minato's wishes no one in Michiko's generation knew because even though the village thought of Michiko as a hero kids would be a little scared of her if they knew she had a demon living inside her.

Michiko stopped eating and looked down at the table. Hey Tou-san, Kaa-san what do you think Naruto is doing right now?" Minato and Kushina stiffened at this. They had told her about what happened to Naruto and Michiko swore that she find him one day. Minato of course still had any ninja sent on a mission told to keep a look out for Naruto, but after six years he couldn't make a dedicated search party. Jiraiya was still looking for Naruto and Minato was very thankful for that.

"I'm sure Naruto is having a great time." Kushina said though since Naruto was kidnapped the odds of him being alive were slim let along having fun. They tried not to give up hope that Naruto was out there somewhere, but every time Michiko had a birthday it just reminded them that another year had gone by without Naruto.

"By the way can my friends come over after class?" Michiko said cheering herself up.

"Sure they can." Kushina said with a smile.

"Thanks." Michiko said

Michiko ran to the academy to tell her friend. She met up with her three best friends in front of the academy. "Hinata, Ino, Sakura good morning." She said as she waved. Her friend waved back.

"Hey Michiko we were just talking about how great it is that we're all in the same class as Sasuke." Sakura said.

"Well I'm going to be sitting by him." Ino said.

"No you're not Ino pig!" Sakura yelled and started fighting with Ino.

"Guys don't fight it's are first day on the way to becoming ninjas." Michiko said trying to calm them down. "Besides I have some great news my Kaa-san said we could hang out after class and we can even invite some of the boys." Michiko knew almost everyone in their class since most of them were sons or daughters of clan heads.

"Thank you for inviting us." Hinata said quietly since she was pretty shy. Ino and Sakura stop fighting to thank her too. Then Iruka came out a told everyone it was time for class.

Michiko sat down next to Hinata. Ino and Sakura had abandoned them to go sit next to their Sasuke. Sasuke didn't look to happy about this, but didn't say anything. Michiko didn't know what they thought was so great him. Sure he was a uchiha, but he was just starting the academy there's no way he was a great ninja yet.

Iruka came into class and wrote his on the board. "Hai class my name is Iruka-sensei."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei" the class said.

"Well I'm glad you're all ready to start your ninja train, but first let's introduce are self's." One by one the students walk in front of the class. Sasuke, Michiko and Hinata all received gasps from the people who didn't know who they were. After all you don't normally get the two future head of the most power clans and the Hokage's daughter in your class.

The rest of the class was quite boring in Michiko's opinion. Iruka basically went over what a ninja was and what they did for the village. He went over mission structure and the basics of chakra. After class the girls were standing in the yard. They decided that they would invite Sasuke, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji and shino since they knew all of them. The girls asked all of them and they all agreed although it took a while to convince Sasuke and Shikamaru. They walked to the Hokage's mansion and went inside. Kushina greeted them and said she would start making snakes. All the kids sat down in the living room.

"Is your dad home Michiko?" Choji asked.

"No, he doesn't normally get off work till later. Away what did you guys think of you first day at the academy." She said.

"Boring" Sasuke said. "They should just pass me already if it's going to be this easy every day."

Sakura and Ino thought he was super cool for saying that, but Michiko was annoyed. Who did he think he was? We've only been the academy for one day and he already wants to leave. Michiko thought to herself.

"It's only been one day I'm sure it will get harder." Hinata said.

"I doubt it." Sasuke said with the famous uchiha pride.

"Come on Sasuke it not like they're going to work us to work us to exhaustion on the first day." Kiba Said.

* * *

* Takumi Village*

Naruto was exhausted. He could barely keep on his feet. Every muscle burned. He had no idea mining was so hard. Naruto was on his way to his apartment after an eight-hour shift. Riku was right they didn't find anything but rocks. Naruto didn't even feel like he accomplished anything. Riku did say it was great training though.

Naruto made it two his apartment and took his key out of his pocket. His hand was shacking so bad it took him a couple tries to get it in the lock. He finally got his door opened and got a good look inside his new living space. There was a living room without any furniture; Naruto would have to buy some later. Connected to the living room was a kitchen which didn't have any food. There was a door to a decent sized bathroom and then another door leading to a bed room which did have a bed which looked really inviting.

Naruto wanted nothing more than to take a nap, but if he wanted to become a ninja be would have to figure out what to do with the paper Riku gave him. Naruto didn't know anything about chakra so he just sat on the floor starting at the paper trying to make something happen. After a while Naruto deiced nothing was going to happen. Naruto thought of a different plan.

He remembered Riku telling him that you had to get all your information from books so Naruto would go to the library to find a book on chakra and he would get some food too. Naruto walked out of the house still sore from the day's work. It was night out, but the town was still alive with fires burning and women making the ninja tools.

Naruto made it to the library and found the ninja section easy enough. While he was looking for a book on chakra he saw someone he didn't expect to see, Riku. He was carrying a bunch of small black books.

"Hey Riku." Naruto said.

Riku looked over to Naruto I little surprised that he came to the library for help so early. Maybe he wasn't as stupid as Riku thought. "Well what do you know? I thought you would have left town after your first day at the mine."

This made Naruto a little angry, but not wanting to start a fight with the person that would teach him how to become a ninja Naruto held his temper. "What are those books anyway?"

Riku looked down at them as if he forgot he was holding them. "These are bingo books, I'm looking for someone."

"Ok." Naruto said and went back to looking for his book. Riku left carry all his books and Naruto couldn't help, but wonder who he was looking for. Naruto found the book he was looking for and checked it out. He then stopped by the store to get some food and went back to his house.

Naruto sat on his bed and looked over the book. The book explained what chakra was and about chakra depletion. Naruto wondered how much chakra he had, he would have to ask Riku later. Then it went into to molding chakra and finally about chakra natures, fire, earth, water, wind and lightning. However nowhere in the book did it say anything about a piece of paper. Naruto was a little disappointed in this, but guess it wouldn't have been that easy. Naruto decided that he would work on molding chakra tomorrow. He got in bed and slept like a rock.

The next day wasn't any easier. Naruto still felt like he was going to die after mining and Riku had a good laugh about it. Naruto didn't give in though right when he got home he started practicing molding chakra. He did this for three days until he finally got it.

Naruto was super happy. He could feel it flowing though his body. He got the piece of paper Riku gave him. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated on the paper, nothing happened. Naruto was confused he had molded his chakra why wasn't it doing anything. Maybe he had to force chakra into the paper. Naruto closed his eyes and pushed chakra to the paper. It took him a while since he'd never tried to move his chakra to any part of his body, but after a while he heard the paper tear.

Naruto looked at the paper was cut in two. Naruto's eye started to twitch. That was it. All that was supposed to happen was it was torn in two. He could have done that with his hands. Naruto was pissed at Riku did he think this was some kind of joke. Naruto expected the paper to explode or change color at the very least. Something that he could have only done with chakra, but no it just got torn in two.

The next day Naruto was walking down the tunnels of the mine. He could hear Riku up ahead. "Hey Riku!"

"Riku looked towards Naruto. "Oh Naruto there's something I want to tell you." Then Naruto threw a punch which Riku barley dogged. "Hey what was that for?!"

Naruto held up his spilt piece of paper. "What the hell is this some kind of joke?!"

Riku looked at the paper he couldn't believe Naruto did it so soon. It would have been easy for any ninja, but Naruto hadn't even stared basic chakra control. "Well, Naruto it looks like you did it." Naruto looked puzzled. "That paper shows what element your chakra is and you are wind, not too many of those."

Naruto looked down at the paper. "Is wind good?" Naruto asked.

"Not what I'd prefer, but there's no such thing as a bad element." Riku said. "Enough about that though. I have something important to tell you." Naruto looked at Riku curious at what he wanted to tell him. "Take a look at this." Riku handed him one of those black books he had with him in the library.

Naruto looked at it. There was a picture of some guy and over the picture it said, Namikaze Minato current Hokage of Konoha. "What about it?" Naruto asked.

"Look at the picture, remind you of anyone?" Riku said.

Naruto looked at the picture more closely and was shocked. It looked like he was looking into a mirror; this Hokage looked exactly like him. "Who is this?"

"I believe that person is your dad."


	2. Girls and Massacres

"My dad?" Naruto looked at the picture some more. "But If I'm the son of the Hokage of the leaf why I'm I in Takumi?"

"I have a theory for that, but first." Riku took the bingo book from Naruto and flipped a few pages. "If Minato is your dad and looking at the picture I'm pretty sure he is then this is your mom." Riku Showed Naruto a picture of a red-haired woman with the name Namikaze Kushina. Naruto looked at the picture for a little bit thinking what his family was like. "You also have a twin sister."

Naruto was blow out of his thought. "A what?!"

"A sister she also a Jinchuuriki." Riku said.

"Jinchuuriki?" Naruto said with a confused look.

"A Jinchuuriki is a vessel for a demon in your sister's case the Nine Tails, but I'll tell you more about that later, for now my theory." Naruto made sure to pay close attention to Riku. "Now remember I could be completely wrong, but I believe that your parents sent you here."

"What?!" Naruto said not believing his own parents would send him away.

"Let me finish." Riku said. "You see Jinchuurikis are almost always hated by their village either because they believe that the demon will get out or they hate what the demon did to them before it got sealed. Now this is a secret, but the good thing about Takumi is they get merchants for all over the elemental nation and merchants talk a lot about things they shouldn't. They talked about on October 10th the Nine Tails attacked the village and killed a lot of people before the Hokage could seal it. You need a new-born baby to seal any one of the tailed beast so the hokage sealed it in his daughter. Since you two are twins this means your birthday is October 10th in case you wanted to know. Anyway the Nine Tails killed a lot of people so the village was probably really mad at the Jinchuuriki and wanted it killed even if it was the Hokage's daughter. Now the Hokage has to do what the village says or risk being replaced. In terms of strength it would be incredibly stupid to kill or get rid of a Jinchuuriki so in order calm the people and keep the Jinchuuriki the Hokage said you were the Jinchuuriki, but because he loved you he didn't kill you he just sent you somewhere and told the village that he killed you and after a couple of years the village was calmed down and could think with straight minds the Hokage revels that your sisters is really the Jinchuuriki and since the village isn't blinded by anger they see just how power a Jinchuuriki is and accepts her."

"If that's true why didn't my dad come get me after he told the village that my sister was the Jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked.

"Your dad might not know where you are he probably just told an Anbu to take you somewhere and told him to never say where you were. So he wouldn't be tempted to get you because the village would have killed you believing you were the Jinchuuriki, but now that it safe for you to come back your dad and mom probably want you back desperately because they love you, but remember that's just what I think. What really happened could be completely different from what I just told you. Like I also thought about how you could have been taken by an enemy ninja, but the problem with that scenario is if that happened you would have been killed or be trained in that village not here."

Naruto looked down very sad about the news. As much as Naruto didn't like it the first story made a lot of sense.

"Now Naruto you have a huge choice to make." Naruto looked up at Riku wondering what he was about to say. "Naruto are you going back to Konoha and even if you don't do you still want to be a shinobi."

"What do you mean?" Naruto said.

"If you go back to Konoha I won't stop you, but remember the Land of Rivers borders the Land of Fire. If you go back to Konoha you could be hailed as royalty and have a loving family being the son of the Hokage however Konoha doesn't know that Takumi has a ninja army, but we will still attack Konoha ninja more often since there closest. So could you bring yourself to fight to fight me?" Naruto didn't like the thought of fighting his only friend. "However this works both ways, could you bring yourself to fight the village your dad leads and possibly your sister. You could just stay here and not become a ninja if you want."

"No." Naruto said looking right in to Riku eyes with such determination. "I will stay in this village and I will become a ninja even if I have to attack my father or sister because even if they love me and want me back I don't know them, but I do know you and I love this village and I want to be a part of it. Plus I don't want to be treated like royalty just because of whom my father is I want to be known for my own power.

Riku smiled at Naruto and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. That great, but don't become too famous because we wouldn't what Konoha trying to get you back after they fucked up and put you here." They both had a good laugh.

* * *

*Konoha two years later*

Michiko was sitting in class listening to Iruka lecturing aging this time it was about Kiri. Michiko was bored out of her mind and she could tell she wasn't the only one Sasuke always had a know-it-all look on his face, but Michiko knew that he was frustrated about the pace they were going. They were in their third year at the academy and the only ninja thing they had done was basic taijutsu, weapon training and chakra control lots and lots of chakra control.

After the boring lecture Iruka announced something exciting for once a kunai throwing test. He led the students outside and called them one by one to throw ten kunais at a target about fifteen feet away. The target had an outer circle an, inner circle and a bull's-eye. A couple of people went, but the only interesting things that happened were Sasuke hitting the bull's-eye with all ten Kunai. Shikamaru hitting the inner circle with all ten kunai doing painfully average like always, and Sakura who managed to hit the outer circle once. Michiko loved Sakura like a sister, but she wasn't really sure why she wanted to be a ninja she wasn't very good at it, and she spent almost all her time arguing with Ino about Sasuke or staring at Sasuke. Then Iruka called her name and she got in position.

Michiko wanted to prove that she was the best ninja in the academy so she would have to get ten bull's-eyes just like Sasuke. She didn't think she be able to live with herself if she let Sasuke beat her. Right now she was the top kunoichi in the class, but that didn't me much since her competition weren't exactly A-class ninja. Ino and Sakura were both to busy yelling at each other and Hinata was a stuttering wreck. Michiko felt bad for Hinata having to put up with a family like that.

Michiko returned her thought to the task ahead. She took her kunai and threw it at the target and…inner circle. Michiko was mad she screwed up on the first throw. She wouldn't let it get to her though even if she was a little pissed she was coming in behind Sasuke aging. She threw two more of them and they hit the bull's-eye, but the fourth hit the inner circle. In the end Michiko got six in the bull's-eye and four in the inner circle. Michiko was pretty frustrated with her performance.

Meanwhile inside the Hokage tower Minato was dealing with a huge issue and that issue was the coup d'état the uchiha clan was planning. They were doing a good job of keeping it a secret too. Minato wouldn't have even known if Itachi hadn't told him. Now he had to do something that when against his very being, have Itachi murder his entire clan and then become a missing Nin.

"Itachi I'm so sorry." Minato said to him as he was sitting in a chair in front of his desk right now.

"Hokage-san I know you would be the one to do it if you could." Itachi said.

Itachi was one of the very few people who knew that he didn't actually have any power. It was Konoha's most guarded secrets.

"All the preparations are done." Minato said and Itachi just nodded. "Like you requested Sasuke will be spending the night at my house with a bunch of other friends under a pretext of a sleepover." Itachi nodded aging, Minato sighed. "Then I guess you ready for tonight?"

"Hai, I will take my leave." Itachi said.

"Minato put down the papers he was holding on his desk. "Itachi," He looked back at the Hokage. "I don't have any right to ask you this, but if you find Naruto could you point him in the direction of the village."

Itachi looked I Minato for a while. He didn't think there was a chance in hell the Naruto was alive, no matter how much the Hokage wanted to believe. "If I see him then I'll send him back." Itachi left the room for the last time.

Later that night Sasuke and all the other academy students were at the Hokage's mansion for a sleep over with Michiko and he hated it. It wasn't that Sasuke hated his friend he just though sleepovers were the worst thing in the world, but that was mostly because there were two certain girls yelling about who was going to sleep next to him and they were giving him a headache.

They were all laid out in the living room and Kushina was making dinner in the kitchen and the Hokage was still at the tower. The kids were al talking to one another, but all Sasuke wanted to do was go home. Sasuke slipped into the kitchen.

"Excuses me Mrs. Namikaze." Sasuke asked as polity as he could.

"Yes Sasuke what do you need?" Kushina said. She was trying to hide her emotions because she was really sorry for the boy he was about to lose his entire family and he would probably hate his bother.

"I was just wondering if you could call Itachi and tell him to pick me up." Sasuke said.

Kushina almost broke the spoon she was holding in two. There was absolute no way Sasuke could go back, she suspected the Itachi was killing his clan right now. "I'm sorry, but your brother told me you would stay her all night and it would be rude if I told him to come get you."

Sasuke didn't look happy by this, but before anymore could be said Michiko walked in the room. "Sasuke why do you want to leave, we're never all together like this?" she whined.

"Because you guys are all annoying." Sasuke said with an annoyed looked that Michiko returned. "Whatever I'll just walk home." He said then headed for the front door.

Kushina was about ready to stop him, but Michiko ran and blocked the front door." Oh no you don't you can be with your brother any time, but you rarely get the chance to hang out with all your friends so you are staying right here."

Sasuke was getting very angry at that point. "Let me thought." Michiko shook her head. Sasuke was very anger at this point. "You know what I think. I think that you're mad because I can see my brother whenever I want and you'll never even get to see yours once!"

Michiko stiffened after hearing Sasuke talk about her brother. The whole room was silent. All the kids there knew that her brother was a touchy subject for Michiko and whenever someone talked about him it made her very depressed, after all there had been no news of Naruto for eight years and most people though he was dead, but Michiko believed he was alive and one day she was going to find him.

"Sasuke that was uncalled for!" Kiba said standing up.

Sasuke just glared at him. "How was it uncalled for?! We all know the truth and it time Michiko got out of her fantasy world." Sasuke said turning around to look at Michiko, who was griping the wall in anger and sadness. "Naruto is dead!"

Kushina was watching the whole thing and was not happy with Sasuke telling Michiko her brother was dead when she and Kushina both believed Naruto was alive. If it was any other time she would have sent Sasuke home, but she obviously couldn't do that, but what worried her most is that she could feel some of the Kyuubi's chakra leaking from Michiko.

Then Michiko lifted her hand and Kushina was afraid so was going to hurt Sasuke, but there was a loud sound of flesh hitting flesh. Sasuke head was turned sideways after Michiko had slapped him. She had tears falling from her eyes. "Naruto is not dead." She said then ran upstairs. Kushina was surprised even though she was crying she had said it with such confidence it made Kushina think of a certain blond Hokage when he was a kid.

Kushina wanted to go comfort her daughter, but she had to stay down here and make sure Sasuke didn't try to leave. "Sakura, Ino, Hinata would you go make sure Michiko is OK." She said sweetly the girls nodded and headed upstairs. Now Kushina could focus on Sasuke. If he hated sleepover so much she was going to make his night hell, getting his entire clan killed be dammed no one makes her little girl cry.

* * *

*Takumi Village*

Naruto and Riku were walking towards the mine. They had grown very close over the years and Naruto started thinking of him as a big brother. He never regretted his choice to stay in Takumi Village he like it here and he thought Riku was much better than the sister he could have had. Naruto was fully prepared to fight and even kill his twin sister if necessary or any Konoha Nin for that matter.

Naruto and Riku had changed over the past two years. They had both gotten taller although Riku was still a head taller. He also started calling Naruto Dwarf. He said it was so when they went on mission. If the hokage was looking for him they wouldn't be using his real name. Riku had talked with the orphanage and confirmed that Naruto was left with that name; though Naruto thought Riku just liked calling him that. They both had well-built bodies, but were still slender. Riku didn't change much of his clothing since Naruto and first met him. The only things he changed was he switched out his white headband for a black headband there was still no meatal on it since Takumi village didn't want their ninja to wear their symbol otherwise the world would know they had ninja. Riku also had gotten ride of his undershirt and only wore his brown jacket leaving his chest and abs visible. Naruto thought he only did this for the girls though. The village knew that they were both planning on become ninja and they were strong for their age which got them a lot of respect and fan girls, Riku seemed to really like that part.

Naruto didn't really change his style either, but in order to be more like Riku Naruto wore goggles on his forehead like Riku did with his headband. However Riku hair fell over his headband while Naruto in an attempted to not be recognized as the Hokage's son so easily had pulled his hair back so instead of spiking upwards it spiked backwards and Naruto thought it looked cool.

They had also found something very interesting about Naruto. He had huge chakra supplies. They could only guess that it had something to do with Naruto mom begin the Jinchuuriki at the time of his birth and he somehow got some of the Nine Tail's chakra, but they had no way of knowing if he actually had demonic and neither of them thought he did, so for their purposes Naruto only had regular charka. Riku guess that he had about as much chakra as the Three Tail which was more than anyone needed Naruto had also found out about Riku's ninja abilities. First he loved poison and was always trying to make new ones all of his weapons had poison on they. The second thing is that he had lightning nature.

Naruto had learned this the hard way. One day Naruto was arguing with Riku because he wanted to change tunnels to one that actually produced something. Riku kept telling him that the tunnel wasn't for mining it was for training. This went on and on until Riku sighed and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto thought he was giving up, but all the sudden Naruto felt like he was getting electrocuted. Riku had poured his lightning chakra in his hand and since he was touching Naruto he could electrocute him. Needless to say they were still in the same tunnel.

They walked down the wall since they both had good enough chakra control to do it. Naruto turned to the stairs were all the normal miners went down and saw a boy who looked like it was his first day. He was looking at Naruto with awe. Naruto smiled as he remembered how awesome it was to see a ninja walking down the wall. He waved at the boy and it seemed to make his whole day. However no matter of cool that kid though he was. Naruto still wasn't a ninja yet and it was killing him. Naruto wanted to take the genin exam last year, but Riku said they weren't ready and Naruto trusted Riku decision. However this year's genin exam was coming up and Naruto was going to ask Riku about it once they got to the tunnel.

They made it to the bottom and walked to their tunnel. It had changed a lot since they were the only two ever there they could put a bunch of stuff in it. There was a table and chairs. There were targets littered with kunais most of them in the bulls-eye. There were also a bunch of books on everything from the 5 major ninja villages to taijutsu techniques. Now a day's they only did three hours of mining and the rest was for training. Normally Takumi was all about managing its resource and people were resource too and miners would never be allowed to slack off, but since it was so obvious that they were going to become powerful ninja the mine boss allowed it.

"Hey Riku are we going to take the genin exams this year?" Naruto asked.

Riku sighed. "Dwarf you're in such a rush to get yourself killed."

"What?" Naruto said.

"Listen Naruto the genin exams her is a lot harder than anywhere else and do you know why?" Riku asked. Naruto shook his head. "You see since we do mostly underground work we're going to get harder jobs than any normal genin would ever get and if we are really good then were going to be put in the bingo book sooner or later and let's not forget the normal graduating age is twelve and your eight and I'm nine. You get what I'm saying."

Naruto looked down very sad. "So you're saying we're not going to try until I'm twelve?"

"I didn't say that." Naruto suddenly looked happy aging. "You see we're much stronger than the average genin already. I'd say right now we're high-genin level, but you see I want to be mid- chunin before we take the test. So I've thought about it and I think we'll take it when I'm elven and you're ten."

"That's only two more years." Naruto said excitedly.

"Yeah, but we are still going to train hard every day, right Naruto?"

"Hai." Naruto said and started mining.

* * *

*1 year later*

One year had done wonders from Naruto's and Riku's reputation. They were pretty much haled as hero because they were the most promising ninjas in a long time and Takumi village loved strong ninja.

They were walking towards the mine being greeted by everyone they passed saying thing like "Hey when you guys going to take the genin exams, I'm sure you'll pass with ease." Or "I love you guys!" Riku almost always had a perverted blush on his face whenever a girl said that to him.

Naruto also had quite a few fan girls and had to ask Riku for a crash course on how to deal with them. Riku explained that you could basically get them to do whatever you want, but make sure to watch out for the crazy ones because they try to rape you in the street. Riku had made sure to explain to him about sex after Naruto asked why he wanted girls to love him so much. So Naruto didn't like the idea of someone forcing it upon him so he made sure to stay away from those types of fan girls. Even though they were both probably ready to take the exam they decided that they would stick with the originally plan and what till next year to take it.

Today was like any ordinary day, but about two hours into to their shift someone came to visit their tunnel. They were mining like usually when they heard someone walking towards them. A year ago this could have been a new miner sent to the tunnel, but once they figured out that there was only rock there they moved on and since it was clear Naruto and Riku were becoming ninja a new miner hadn't been in their tunnel for a year. Naruto and Riku were wondering who it could be.

They were both surprised when a girl turned the corner. Girls weren't allowed in the mine since it was as Riku called it 'man work.' Girls were blacksmiths and merchants while boys became miners or ninjas. Now boys could become blacksmiths or merchants if they wanted to, but girls could never become miners or ninja since they were weaker than men.

The girl looked like she was Naruto's age, but slightly taller than Naruto, but still shorter than Riku. She had green eyes and dark blue hair. She was wearing dark blue shinobi sandals, a light blue skirt with black shorts underneath. She also hand on a short shelve shirt and her hands were wrapped in bandages to make fingerless gloves. Naruto thought she was very pretty, he just hoped she wasn't a crazy fan girl.

"Hey Riku what's she doing down here?" Naruto asked

"Sometimes girls sneak down here to tell miners or future ninjas that they love them. Don't worry I'll handle this." Riku said and walked towards the girl.

"I'm sorry girl." The girl looked confused. "I know you came all the way down here to ask me if you could have my baby." The girl's face turned bright red. "However I'm too young to do such things, however when I'm older I will gladly consider you. Just tell me your name"

The girl's face was embarrassment mix with anger. "That not what I came here for you bastard!" She yelled and then crossed her arms "My name is Susumu Yukiko by the way."

Riku rubbed the back of his neck. "How did you even get down here?"

Yukiko pulled out a bag and when she did Naruto noticed she had a lot of small scars running along her fingers probably from when she cut her self; sharping or fixing ninja tools. Naruto also bet that those bandage gloves she wore were covering plenty more on her hands. "I told the guard you forgot your lunch and if I could bring it to you."

"Fine." Riku said. "But I have two questions first why did you come to see us and can I have that lunch?"

Yukiko threw the lunch box at his face, but he grabbed it easily. She started biting lower lip as if what she had to say was very hard for. "I want to become a ninja." Naruto was shocked why would she come to them to become a ninja?

Riku on the other hand looked a little mad. "You want to be a ninja?"

Yukiko looked down at the floor like she said something wrong. "Yes" A kunai went flying at her and cut her arm. She grabbed it in pain.

"You want to become a ninja and yet you couldn't even dodge that and let me guess you have no chakra control. You don't know how to use jutsu and you don't have any taijutsu style!" Yukiko looked father down every time Riku said something conforming it was true. "And people wonder why kunoichi are so much weaker than their male counterparts. That why girls don't become ninja in this village."

"No!" Yukiko screamed. "You don't know anything." Riku stopped talking and just looked utterly shocked that he was stopped. "You don't know how good you guys have it. I don't know anything about chakra because when I went to the library to get a book about chakra. The guy laughed at me and said girl were too stupid to become ninja." Yukiko had tears running down her face. "So I left and later I found out in order for a girl to get any kind of ninja book they have to get permission from a ninja or a boy who has enough standing in the ninja word and even if I'm a super great ninja a still need a recommendation to take the genin exams."

Naruto was surprised that she couldn't even use the library. Naruto remembered the first test Riku gave him he would have been screwed if he couldn't use the library.

"I know all that already I asked why you came down here." Riku said sounding a little angry.

Yukiko whipped away her tears. "I was hoping you two would give me permission to use the library and a recommendation to take the genin exams with you."

"Why did you come to us when we're not even ninja yet? Why not ask someone who has more power than us?" Naruto asked.

Yukiko looked ready to cry aging. "I did I probably asked every ninja in this village twice and they all told me to get lost and give up on being a ninja." Yukiko fell on her hands and knees and stared crying. "You two are my last hope since you're so respected as soon to be ninja and since Riku dad is a ninja I believe your recommendation should be enough. So I'm begging you being a ninja has been my dream since I was a little girl and it might seem like an easy thing to do for you boys, but to use girls it almost impossible to accomplish."

Naruto didn't see a reason not to give her permission, but Naruto didn't want to do anything without Riku approval.

"You know what you're asking right?" Riku said. "It not as simple as writing on a piece of paper that I give you permission to go to the library. I have to take responsibility for you it would be like adding you to the team. Which means you would have to take the genin test with us which we're planning on doing in less than a year. You on the other hand don't know a thing which makes you a liability. I'm not putting mine and Dwarf's life in danger just because some girl came crying to us."

"Riku I don't mind." Naruto said and Riku's and Yukiko's head snapped to Naruto both with shocked looks on their faces.

"Listen Dwarf are you sure about this?" Riku asked in disbelieve.

"I'm sure besides aren't genin teams normally three people." Naruto said.

Yukiko couldn't believe it after all this time someone was finally going to give her a chance. She jumped up and pulled Naruto into a huge "Thank you, Thank you, you don't know how happy I I'm right now."

Naruto was surprised to be pulled into a hug so suddenly and just patted her back awkwardly. "No problem."

Riku rubbed his forehead. "Fine I'll give you permission to use the library, but I will not have some weakling on our team. So this is what you're going to do." Yukiko gave her full attention to Riku. Me and Dwarf are taking the genin exams next year so you need to be a proper ninja by that time. The day before the genin test me and Naruto will give you your own test if you do well I'll give you a recommendation, but if you fail I will never give you a recommendation ever." Yukiko nodded. "Now what you need to be able to do in the next year, first you must come to the mine every day and if you miss a day or stop mining during the shift it's over no recommendation. Next you will need to be able to climb up the mine wall only using your feet like me and Dwarf do. You also have to be good at ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, weapon proficiency and you have to study medical jutsu since me and Dwarf are going to get hurt and we'll need someone to treat our wounds. If you can't do that, leave right now."

Naruto thought Riku was insane. He was telling her to go through seven years of academy lessons in one year along with mining and studying medical jutsu. There was no why she could do it.

"I'll do it." Naruto's jaw hit the floor and Riku's did too.

"Wh-wh-what?" Riku said trying to keep clam, but was failing horribly.

"You heard me. I will become a ninja not matter how much work you try to drown me in and remember you made a promise and ninja can't break their promises" Then Yukiko got a pickaxe and started mining. It took a while for Naruto and Riku to recover and once they did they just started mining in silence. They didn't even train that day.

After the shift was over Yukiko ran off to go the library to get the books she would need to complete Riku's insane assignment. She had a piece of paper giving her permission to go to the library with Naruto's and Riku's name on it.

After Yukiko left Riku pulled Naruto aside. "Alright Dwarf I have an idea on how we're going to get Yukiko to miss a day of mining?"

"Naruto was surprised normally Riku was laid back, but he spoke in a very serious tone as if they were on a mission. "What are you talking about why do we have to do anything to her?"

"Because we can't have a girl on our team." Riku said looking rather mad that Naruto didn't understand this.

"Why does it matter if she's a girl and besides I thought you liked girls?" Naruto asked.

"Girls are for pleasure they're too weak for business that why Takumi doesn't have any Kunoichi." Riku said. Naruto gave him a hard look, but didn't say anything else. "Anyway here's the plan." Riku pulled out a bottle with some pills in it. "We're going to poison her."

"What!? I don't what to kill her!" Naruto said in shock and anger.

"Relax not all poison is for killing." Riku said. "This poison only makes you feel sick for a day. It will keep her from coming to the mine and once she gets some sleep she'll be all better in the morning."

Naruto still didn't what to hurt her, but maybe if girls were as weak as Riku said then it's better to stop her from becoming a ninja so she wouldn't be killed in the field. So Naruto decided to stay with Riku, but not help him.

First they henged into average villagers and headed for the library where they were sure Yukiko was. When they got to the library they saw Yukiko in the ninja section looking very happy and picking out all the books she thought she would need. The librarian however looked angry that there was a girl in the ninja section and every time she grabbed a book he flinched a little. Naruto guess that he didn't want to let Yukiko in, but seeing the note he had no choice because Riku epically had a lot of influence with his dad being a jounin which was much harder to do in Takumi than any other village.

They watched her until she left heading for home. They waited a little bit before following her. They got to their destination; Yukiko's house the only thing that was unique about it was it was built on top of a blacksmith/weapon store which meant that they owned the store. Naruto was surprised he thought Yukiko worked at a blacksmiths. He didn't think her family owned one. Naruto made a note in his head to only buy his equipment from this store to make up for the pain they were about to cause her.

Yukiko went into the house. Naruto and Riku jumped onto the balcony the house had without making a sound. Naruto and Riku had excellent teamwork which let them do simple stealth mission like this without needing to talk to each other. They were also pretty good at stealth in general because Riku made sure that he drilled it into Naruto's head because you sneak around a lot when you're a ninja that works for a village that's not supposed to have any ninja, and your main missions are assassination. When they first meet Riku thought Naruto was never going to be able to do any kind of stealth being so loud, but Naruto was pretty quiet when he had to be.

They picked the lock to the door and went inside. It looked like everyone was on the lower level greeting Yukiko home. They jumped up to the ceiling and hide in the rafters. They didn't have to wait long because Yukiko and her mom and dad came up and took a seat at a table getting ready to eat.

"Yukiko where were you all day?" Her mom asked.

Yukiko was shining with happiness. "Mom you'll never believe it. You know those two soon to be ninjas everyone is talking about."

"I know who they are Riku and Naruto those two are going to make this village proud." Yukiko's dad said and Naruto couldn't help but smile.

"Well they gave me permission to use the ninja section of the library and they said they give me a recommendation to take the genin exams next year as long as I went to the mine every day and did some other stuff to make sure I'm a good ninja."

Yukiko dad almost choked on his food and why everyone was paying attention to him. Riku dropped the pill in Yukiko's water which dissolved into a colorless liquid.

"You're going to be a what!?" Yukiko's dad said patting his chest.

"I'm going to be a ninja with Riku and Naruto." Yukiko said then took a sip of her water.

Yukiko's mom put her hand on Yukiko's shoulder looking sad. "Listen honey I know you always wanted to be a ninja, but that's just not what girls do, and I know that those boys gave you permission, but they're still young and probably just thought it would be funny to get your hopes up."

"No they said and ninja don't break their promises!" Yukiko said them stormed off to her room. With both her parents following her giving Riku and Naruto the perfect chance to leave the house. Once they got out they said goodbye and went to their house.

Naruto couldn't help but feel bad the entire way home. When he got there he dropped his thing on the table and headed for the bathroom to take a shower hoping to clear his head. He took off his clothes and looked in the mirror and freak-out when he looked completely different until he realized he still had his henge on. He deactivate it a jumped in the shower.

The next day Riku and Naruto were at the mine about ten minutes before the shift started. Riku had already started mining while Naruto was waiting for Yukiko to show up.

"Dwarf I don't know what you're waiting for she not coming even if her parents let her the poison is going to keep her in bed." Riku said.

"You don't know that. We gave the guard the Ok to let her in and she still has ten minutes left." Naruto said bitterly. Riku just shook his head and went back to mining. The minutes ticked down and Naruto was about ready to accept that Yukiko wasn't coming when he heard someone dragging their feet towards them.

Naruto stopped to look at who it was and there was Yukiko holding a pickaxe, but she did not look good. She was pale and there was sweat dripping down her face. It looked like just the walk here was too much for her. Riku noticed this too and just looked utterly shocked.

"Hey Yukiko are you Ok?" Naruto asked knowing full well that she wasn't.

"I'm fine just felling a little bit under the weather, but I can still mine." She said with ragged breath. She walked to her spot past Riku who was staring wide eyed at her.

Naruto felt bad for her even though she put up all the effort to come down here there was no way she last more than an hour let alone an eight-hour shift. Riku would know this soon enough and get over his shock. Naruto seeing there was nothing he could do just started his own mining.

This was insane they had been mining for three hours and Yukiko was still holding on. Even though every time she lifted the pickaxe over her head it look like she going to pass out. Riku tried his best not to show how frustrated he was, but he couldn't keep it hiding.

Five hours in and Yukiko wasn't looking so good. She was paler than she was before and Naruto sower he saw her lose consciousness a few times, but pulled herself back as if nothing happened. Naruto was proud out how well she was doing now he knew that Riku was wrong. Girls were not weak.

Six hours in and Yukiko was barely on her feet, but she didn't complain. As she swung her pick she crumbled to her knees in pain and they she puked. She stayed in that position for a little bit just staring at the ground, but she soon got back up a started working aging without saying anything. Naruto wanted to help her so badly, but knew she would never accept it feeling like it would break the rules Riku had set.

Seven hours in. Yukiko didn't have any strength left. She couldn't even crack the rocks she was mining any more.

Seven and a half hours in. It was over Yukiko passed out. She was lying by the side of the cave with a blanket and a pillow that Naruto got for her. She looked peaceful now, but Naruto knew when she woke up she'd be crushed.

"Well it looks like we won't have to deal with her anymore." Riku said very casually.

"Riku it's unfair you cheated she should still be able to become a ninja. Look at her she put herself thought hell just to make it down here and then mined for seven and a half hours when she knew she should be in bed resting." Naruto said looking at Yukiko.

"Naruto I told you Girls are weak. She could never be a ninja just drop it." Riku said.

Naruto didn't miss Riku using his real name which meant he was serious and Naruto never did anything to make Riku mad when he was serious; until now.

"She not a weak girl! She's stronger than half the idiots running around the Elemental Nations claiming to be ninjas! You're just sexist!

"You're just a kid who doesn't like how things work! So you're trying to change it!" They were in each other's faces and neither one was welling to back down. Then Naruto threw a punch at Riku's face. Riku stepped back to dodge and counter punched hitting Naruto in the face causing him to fall to the ground. Naruto quickly recover getting back on his feet. He felt the blood dripping from his nose, but other than that he was fine.

"Aw does the little brat have a bloody nose?" Riku said like he was talking to a baby. "Maybe he should run back to the Hokage and tell him what happened so he can make the bad guy go away. Then he can live his life without any troubles making all the commoner's lick his feet."

"Shut up!" Naruto rushed him and they stared exchanging punches. They were both equal when it came to taijutsu which was all they could use in the mine didn't want to make the whole thing cave in by using a ninjutsu. Unfortunately for Naruto Riku was taller which gave him longer range and made it harder hit him in the face, so Naruto started losing ground.

Naruto had to do something or he would be cornered. He saw noticed Riku was trying really hard to hit his face. This gave him an idea he lowered his guard on purpose, and Riku took the bait he shoot a punch at Naruto's face. Right before it connected Naruto took a step forward and pushed his head back. Riku's punch still connected, but it didn't hurt as much as it should. Naruto fell backwards put his hands on the ground and did a backflip and because of that step forward his feet were right under Riku's chin. Normally Riku would have been able to dodge an attack like that, but they had just finished an eight-hour shift and were tired. Riku was also very mad which clouded his reason; all this lead to Riku taking a kick to the jaw.

He went down hard the kick screwed up his balance. Naruto was quick to reacted he sat and Riku's stomach and pinned Riku's arms with his knees. Riku struggled but couldn't break out of the pin.

"Now listen here Riku!" Naruto yelled. "You and this village are so blinded by your discrimination against girls! That you couldn't even tell a strong Kunoichi if she passed out from poison right in front of you!" Naruto was panting from yelling so hard.

Riku looked like he wanted to kill Naruto. "If you don't like the way we treat girls here so much. Why don't you just go back to Konoha?!"

"Because Konoha has its own problems too and me leaving doesn't fix the problems here, and more importantly I really like it here. I became stronger than I think I could have in Konoha and I got to meet you and Yukiko." Naruto finished with a smile.

This however caused Naruto to lose his concentration and allowed Riku to break out of the pin. Naruto quickly got up ready to fight, but Riku wasn't even looking at Naruto instead he was Looking at Yukiko who was being to wake up. Somehow Riku looked calmer than before.

When she woke up and realized she passed out before the shift ended. She was crushed and started to cry. "Ninjas don't cry." Riku said and Yukiko looked at him in surprise. "You see today happens to be a very special day that only happens once in forever. The day when the shift ends 30 minutes early, so you didn't break any of the rules. You can still be a ninja." Riku finished with sigh then a small smile.

Yukiko didn't know what to do. Not only did these guys believe that she could be a ninja. They were also giving her a second chance. She ran up to Riku and gave him a hug that made them both fall on the ground. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Hey get off me just because you got lucky this time doesn't mean you can stop acting like a ninja and the rules still apply. Riku said trying to push her off blushing furiously.

Naruto just laughed at the scene. He loved this village and he wanted to enjoy it as much as possible because once they became ninja they have to do some terrible things to people who probably don't deserve it, and these happy times wouldn't come around as often. Even so Naruto would always complete his mission no matter who he had to kill.


	3. Birthdays and Genin Exams

Michiko was taking a test over the history of the leaf. Well not actually taking it, she was letting her eyes wander around the room since the test couldn't hold her attention for more than a single question. It really couldn't be help because today wasn't just an average day it was her birthday, and school was almost done.

Her eyes just kept looking at things that interested her and they landed on Sasuke. He was hunched over his test looking very angry about it. Things had change with Sasuke ever since his brother killed his entire clan and left the village. Sasuke had become obsess with killing his brother, and in order to help him do that he made sure to get the best grades in the class. The down side is he became a total prick to everyone else; of course to Sakura and Ino this only upped his coolness factor.

Michiko was very sad about this in the begin because she felt like she was the only person who could really relate to his situation having never even seen her brother, and because they didn't really leave off on a good note and she wanted to fix that. However it became apparent that their situations were just way to different. Michiko wanted to find her brother because she wanted to see him and bring him back to the village. Sasuke however wanted to kill his brother. Michiko sat there and tried to focus on the test until the bell rang, and when it did Michiko bolted out the door and too her house.

She got there in record time. She went inside and was greeted by her mom and dad who both gave her a big hug.

"Look at my little girl she's grown up so fast." Kushina said.

"Kaa-san let go of me." Michiko whined.

"I'm sorry I just can't believe how long it's been." Kushina said tearing up. "And to think that you're going to be a genin in two years."

"Now Kushina stop embarrassing her I'm sure she just want to have fun at her party." Minato said.

"But it's no fun if I don't get to teases her." Kushina pouted while Minato chuckled at her.

While her parents were talking, Michiko noticed two more people sitting at the table behind her parents. It was Jiraiya and Tsunade. Michiko was happy to see then because they didn't come around too often. Jiraiya was always out of the village doing something for her dad, but she had no idea what that could be. Tsunade lived outside the village and only came back on special occasions.

She went over to talk to them. "Hey you two," Michiko said with a bright smile.

They both said 'Hi' back and they started engaging in small talk. It wasn't long before Minato and Kushina joined them.

"So we've decided that we would give you your presents before all you friends get here does that sound good?" Minato asked.

"Of course tou-san!" Michiko said cheerfully.

"Ok then I'll go first." Jiraiya said and handed her a small rectangle shaped present.

Michiko tore open the wrapping to see what it was. It was a book. "Jiraiya want's_ Icha Icha Paradise_?" Michiko asked.

Jiraiya was about to explain, but was sent flying to the other side of the room by one of Kushina's punches. "Just what the hell are you thinking giving my daughter that mind poison of a book!?" Kushina yelled. Then she took the book away from Michiko and tossed it in the garbage.

"But mom I wanted to read that." Michiko started to whine, but one look from her mom told her that she shouldn't press it.

The rest of the family gave her their gifts too. Tsunade gave her a scroll on medical jutsu. Minato got her some kunais, and Kushina gave some clothes. Then they spent a little time getting ready for all her friend from the academy to show up.

Slowly they started showing up and after all of them got there (except for Sasuke) the party started and was in full swing. Michiko and her friend were having so much fun that they didn't notice when Kushina, Minato, Tsunade and Jiraiya slipped into Minato's office.

"Jiraiya have you found anything out about Naruto." Kushina asked looking hopeful along with Minato and Tsunade.

Jiraiya lowered his head and this action alone was enough to make the three of them lose hope. "I'm sorry Minato, Kushina I've been looking everywhere, but there are so many places he could be and we aren't even sure what he looks like we're assuming that he looks like Minato since Michiko looks like him since they're twins, but he might look nothing like Minato. Plus we don't even know if he's al-"

"Stop, don't say things like that Naruto is definitely alive!" Kushina said although it was getting harder and harder to believe that.

"How many years has it been?" Tsunade asked.

"Ten years apart." Kushina said tears building up in her eyes. "Today's his birthday too I wonder how he is doing."

* * *

*Takumi Village*

Naruto was walking towards the mine to meet up with Riku and Yukiko. It had been four months since Yukiko had joined them. She had never been late to work and had worked hard to meet Riku's deadline. Naruto and her had actually become pretty good friends, and Riku had warmed up to her a little at the very least he wasn't trying to poison her.

While Naruto was walking he could hear the kunais inside his new kunai pack rattling. He had kept his self-made promise and had only bought his ninja supplies from Yukiko's store which wasn't a bad thing since they were really good quality. Even Riku had started buying his things there after seeing how good they were.

Yukiko joining them however wasn't all fun and great, and the reason for that were the fan girls. It didn't take them long to find out that Yukiko joined their squad, and they saw this as attempted to steal Naruto and Riku away from them. Naruto had witnessed how bad it could be first hand.

One day he was walking back with Yukiko because he needed to get his goggles fixed because Riku broke them in a taijutsu spare and luckily Yukiko could fix them. While they were walking back a lot of the girls gave her vicious glares. Now this was pretty normal and Yukiko didn't even notice anymore, but as they were walking someone threw a rock at Yukiko's face. It didn't hurt her, but they both looked to see who did it.

Standing there was one of Naruto's fan girls. "Listen you slut." She said with one of the most annoying voices they had ever heard. "You think you can take my Naruto-kun away from me." Naruto shivered knowing this was one of the fan girls that were likely to rape him. "Just because you're a ninja doesn't mean you're any better than the rest of us. In fact it's probably better that you became a ninja. You'll probably die on your first mission that is if you even pass the genin exam." She stated laughing out loud.

While she was doing that Naruto and Yukiko slipped away. They were back on their way to Yukiko's house/store but Yukiko looked a lot more depressed. "Hey Naruto do you really think I can pass the genin exam I mean everyone says it's really hard." Yukiko said.

"Don't worry about what that girl said. There is no way you won't pass the genin exam because you're being helped by the two best and sexiest pre-ninjas in the village." Naruto said putting his hand threw his hair when he said sexiest.

Yukiko chuckled at Naruto. "I think Riku is rubbing off on you."

Naruto adjusted his goggles thinking about that day. 'Yukiko really did a good job repairing these." Naruto thought.

Yukiko's training had also gone really well. One thing that surprised both Riku and Naruto was on her first try at the targets she hit the center every single time and even to this day has never missed. Yukiko explained to them that since she made kunais she had to test them, and since you couldn't call a kunai a failure just because you had bad aim, so she had to get very good at it. The other thing was her chakra nature was fire. Naruto was a little jealous because no matter how many times Riku told him that there was ups and downs to ever element Naruto always wanted fire, and since he was born in the land of fire he felt a bit robbed.

Naruto was so deep in thought he didn't realize that he was already walking down the tunnel. He was surprised to see that Riku and Yukiko were there, but they weren't actually working. "Hey guys why don't we start mining?" Naruto asked.

"Not yet because you have to open your presents first." Yukiko said.

"What for?" Naruto asked.

"Because it's your birthday, don't tell me you forgot." Yukiko teased.

The truth was Naruto had forgotten. "But how did you know it was my birthday?" Naruto asked.

"Riku told me." Yukiko said pointing towards Riku who was leaning on the wall. "Come on now it's time to open your presents." She handed Naruto a black box with no wrapping. Naruto took it and opened it carefully. Inside was a tanto. The sheath was midnight black. Naruto took the tanto out of the box and unsheathe it a little. The blade was the standard sliver but with a slight blue tint. It looked like one of Yukiko's better works. Naruto put it back in the sheath and thanked Yukiko. "Don't be thanking me yet you don't even know what it's called."

"You got me a named blade?" Naruto asked because it was very rare for anyone to name a blade especially this yearly in their life.

"Yep it's the first weapon I've given a name to and it's made just for you." Yukiko said. "It's made of a special metal that should make it easier to apply your wind chakra to it."

Naruto took the blade out and applied his wind chakra and did find it much easier to manipulate. "That's great." Naruto said with a smile. "So what's its name?"

"Its name is Pick because a dwarf doesn't go anywhere without his pick." Yukiko said happily not knowing how much Naruto hated to be called a dwarf. "And it also has your name." Yukiko pointed to the sheath.

Naruto looked at the sheath and saw something he hadn't noticed before. Carved into the sheath in tiny letter was the name Dwarf. A tick mark appeared on Naruto's head. "Thanks Yukiko." Naruto said bitterly." Naruto actually really liked the blade expect for its name.

"Never fear Naruto I made sure Yukiko knew that Dwarf was your nickname." Riku said laughing to himself. "Anyway here's my present." Riku threw something at Naruto it wasn't even in a box.

Naruto caught it and saw it was a black jacket similar to Riku's brown jacket except Naruto's had a large hood. "The hoods for when we go out on missions so you can hide your hair in cause we run into in leaf ninjas and you can hide your ugly face foe when we're not on missions." Riku said.

The tick mark that was already above Naruto's head grew bigger. "I hope your ego get so big it cause a cave-in and kills you." Naruto said.

"Whatever Dwarf." Riku mocked.

Naruto put on his jacket unzipped like Riku. The jacket was actually pretty nice and had plenty of pockets on the inside to hold anything a ninja could need. Naruto would probably put all of his ninja supplies in his jacket from now on with the exception of kunais that were in the kunai back strapped to his leg. He put the tanto Yukiko gave on the right side of the jacket horizontally with a little upward angle that let the handle stick out a little so he could quickly reach for it if he needed to.

"Well that enough birthday celebration. We need to get back to work." Riku said. Naruto didn't get a cake or a party for his birthday, but that was fine with him because that was just the way thing were in the mine.

* * *

It was the day before the genin exams and the three genin hopefuls were in the mine. Today was the day that Riku was going to give Yukiko her test. Yukiko was ready for whatever Riku was going to throw at her. She made addition to fingerless gloves to her outfit although she still wore the bandages underneath.

Riku had gone back to wearing a white shirt under his jacket, but that was it. "Are you ready Yukiko?" Riku said crossing his arms. Yukiko nodded she was extremely focused. Naruto was sitting off to the side watching the whole thing.

"Aright then, there is no reason to test you on wall walking because both I and Naruto have seen you doing it for a while now. I also won't test you on weapons because you were already really good before you even meet us, so first taijutsu."

Riku rushed Yukiko and started throwing punches every which way. Yukiko was doing a good job in blocking them, but Riku started to really try. He sent a kick to her side. She use her hand to block it, but didn't have time to throw his leg off which caused her hand to be stuck there. Since she couldn't block with her hand Riku hit her in the face with a left punch sending her to the ground. Riku pinned her ending the fight. Naruto felt bad it was kind of unfair starting out with taijutsu because that was Yukiko's worst skill.

"Well you failed that so you'll have to pass the next two challenges genjutsu and medical jutsu to get my recommendation. After all we can't use any ninjutsu down here so I can't test you on that." Riku walked over to a box he had sitting in the corner. He opened it and took out a rat with a broken leg. Rats were common in the mine so finding one was hardly a challenging task.

He handed the rat to Yukiko "Let's see if you can heal it." Riku said

"You sure know how to treat a girl." Yukiko said teasingly. She put the rat on the ground and got on her knees. She did a few hand sighs and her hands started glowing green. She kept her hand over the rat's leg for a few minutes. Then it got up and besides for a slight limp it looked fine.

"Good job." Naruto said giving her the thumbs up.

"Alright now it's time to see your genjutsu. Naruto get over here." Riku said. Naruto hoped off the rock he was sitting on a stood in front of Riku. "Now you're going to put Naruto under a genjutsu and he's going to try and get out of it. If it takes longer than a minute for him to get out then I'll give you my recommendation."

Yukiko nodded and did more hand seals "Fusenmei Genzō (Vision Blur)" Yukiko shouted. Naruto vision blurred in a mixture of colors and he could hardly tell where Yukiko was standing. Naruto tired disrupting his chakra just like he had been practicing, but it didn't work. Naruto tired as hard as he could even after the one minute mark. He could just not dispel the genjutsu. Eventually Yukiko had to dispel the genjutsu herself. Naruto fell on his hands and knees with a dark could above him muttering something unintelligible.

It was true Naruto was not that great at genjutsu, but he still expected to be able to dispel Yukiko's. Riku however didn't feel the same way. "Naruto you are pathetic. You couldn't even break a little genjutsu. Yukiko cast one on me so I can show Naruto how it's done."

A minute later Riku was on his hands and knees in the same state as Naruto.

* * *

Naruto, Riku and Yukiko were on their way to the genin exams. Naruto and Riku were still a little depressed not fully recovered from the ass beating Yukiko gave then in genjutsu. On the way there villagers were congratulating Naruto and Riku like they had already passed. They didn't seem to bother with Yukiko however. Yukiko was a little sad that still no one showed her any respect, but she knew that becoming a genin and doing well on her missions would show the village that kunoichi weren't just useless fan girls that so many people believed they were.

The exam building was actually just a warehouse since they only used it for the exams once a year. It was grey and had no windows. There was a ninja guarding the door that looked to be chunin level. The group walked up to him.

"Well I was wondering when you two would take the exam." The guard said looking at Riku and Naruto. "Your girlfriend will have to wait for you two out her though."

"Actually I'm here to take the exam." Yukiko said handing him a slip of paper. The guard took it rather harshly not believing she actually had a recommendation. However he was shocked to see not only did she have a recommendation, it was signed by the rising stars Riku and Naruto. He let Yukiko in, but gave her a sour look. She just stuck her tongue out at him.

The only source of light inside the building was a few lamps scattered here and there. There were a bunch of desk in the room and there were a couple other hopeful genin sitting in them. All around the room was a bunch of junk that was normally kept in the warehouse. Naruto, Riku and Yukiko took theirs seats as well.

There were only about 17 people here to take the exam which was pretty average for the village. Most of them however were just guys trying to impress people by becoming ninjas. It was fine however since Takumi didn't put up with weaklings. The writing test would sort the trash from the ninja.

It wasn't long before a ninja walked in who looked to be the examiner. He looked over the genin hopefuls with hard eyes. He didn't even give Yukiko a second glace which was rare. "Listen up!" He yelled. "You will be taking a writing test first, begin."

There was a lot of confusing at the start because there wasn't a test to start on. One of the boys stood up and told the examiner that there was no test, but the examiner ignored him. While the other kids were standing around looking confused Riku, Naruto, Yukiko and two other were walking around the room trying not to draw any attention to themselves.

Naruto couldn't believe how stupid these people were. Didn't they do any resource beforehand? Takumi was a spying and an assassination village that wasn't even supposed to have any ninja. Naruto knew exactly what was going on because he looked into the written test.

He knew the test were hidden somewhere in this room. There also weren't enough tests for everyone so people who didn't know what they were doing would fail. There was also an unforgiving time limit to find and complete the test, so Naruto had to find it fast. Not to fast however because he didn't want to give his plan away to other students.

He looked over to see how Riku and Yukiko were doing, and was surprised to see that Riku already had a test. There were a bunch of genin hopefuls crowding around him asking where he got it, but Riku ignored them. Not wanting to be outdone by Riku Naruto looked at everything a lot closer.

He needed to find something out of place or that had been moved. Naruto only spent around three more minutes looking around when he found something. There was a barrel off to the side of the room that looked a little too new to be in a place like this. Naruto causal walked over to it and opened it up, and there it was one of the tests. Naruto went back to his desk and started working on it. It wasn't long after that Yukiko and the other two that had started looking with them found a test.

The other genin hopefuls finally realized what they were supposed to do and were running around like a bunch of idiots looking for the tests. Naruto wanted to laugh at how stupid they were being, but decided he needed to focus on the test.

The test wasn't like a normal test in the sense that you just need to know stuff about ninja life. The test was made up of questions about how you would react in a situation like what would you do to assassinate this person without anyone knowing. There were also bingo question which were questions you were expected to know and if you got them wrong you failed the test immediately.

Naruto rushed thought the test because the clock was ticking, and what only seemed like minutes after he started the timer went off, and the test were collected by the examiner who ran by not giving anyone time to write any more. Naruto leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath having barely finished. He glanced over to see how the rest of the genin hopefuls were looking. The shocked look on the faces of the kids who didn't know there was a time limit, but still managed to get the test gave Naruto a little amusement. Riku was even sweating a little.

They waited for a while until the examiner came back. He told most of the genin hopefuls to get out until there were only six of them left: Naruto, Riku, Yukiko and three others. "Well it looks like we have some pretty good potential this year." He said. "But now it's time for the second and last part of the exam the one-on-one test. Now I'm sure since you knew to look for the tests that I don't need to explain this to you, but basically you be put in a room with me and I will test you on anything and everything, and after every one it done I'll give you a sheet of paper telling you if you passed or not along with your skill set. This ranges from E to S, but it only graded to genin skill so just because you got an S on something only means it's prefect for a genin. Now let's get started."

* * *

Naruto walked out of the warehouse his legs felt like jelly. He was the last one to go, so he spotted Riku and Yukiko waiting for him. "Hey Naruto how'd it go?" Yukiko said. Naruto took a seat to give his legs some rest.

"I think he was trying to kill me." Naruto said exhausted.

Not even five minutes later a chunin gave all of them envelopes. "These guys sure are fast." Riku said.

"So these are the test grades. I'm so nervous I don't think I can open it." Yukiko said shaking a little.

Riku however ripped his open the moment he got it. Riku read it with Naruto and Yukiko looking over his shoulder.

Katsu Riku

Taijutsu: A

Ninjutsu: S

Genjutsu: D

Stealth: S

Weapon skill: B

Chakra Control: A

Status: Passed

* * *

"Wow you did great." Naruto said.

"Yeah I know. I bet you two only did half as well as I did." Riku said. This made Naruto angry and he ripped open his envelope.

Naruto (Dwarf)

Taijutsu: B

Ninjutsu: S

Genjutsu: E

Stealth: S

Weapon skill: A

Chakra Control: B

Status: Passed

Addition information:

Naruto has a tanto and has been practicing in kenjutsu although he still has a long way to go.

Kenjutsu: B

* * *

Naruto looked at it very pleased with himself, but there was one problem. Why did they put Dwarf on the paper? Riku was having a good time laughing about this.

"You two passed." Yukiko said looking down at her envelope. "I hope I passed."

"I'm sure you did great." Riku said which gave Yukiko a little confidence. "Maybe not as good as me, but I'm sure you did better than Dwarf." Naruto was getting ready to punch Riku.

Yukiko opened her envelope slowly and read it.

Susumu Yukiko

Taijutsu: D

Ninjutsu: B

Genjutsu: S

Stealth: B

Weapon skill: S

Chakra Control: S

Status: Passed

Addition information:

Yukiko has skill in medical jutsu which is a great thing to have epically for a genin.

Medical jutsu: A

* * *

Yukiko smiled at her grades know she did a great job.

Naruto and Riku however weren't feeling the happiness. They looked at Yukiko's grades then they looked at theirs. Yukiko got an S in three subjects while Naruto and Riku only got two which meant that she did better than them. Naruto and Riku looked just as depressed as when Yukiko put them under a genjutsu.

They stayed like that until the examiner came walking towards them. "Well you three past so here you go." He handed each of them the current bingo book. You could get older bingo books from the library, but only ninja could have the most recant. In most villages only jounin and above really looked at the bingo book, but in Takumi every ninja was expected to have it and know everything inside. "Now you don't have to form a team, but seeing you three work together I'm betting you would like to make one." They all nodded. "Ok then go to the mine boss tomorrow at 8:00 to get your first mission." Then he walked away. The three new genin gave each other a smile and they walked back home getting ready for tomorrow.

The next day Naruto, Riku and Yukiko were walking towards the mine boss's office. They had packed all their ninja gear, and they all had read over the bingo book along with putting it somewhere on their person.

They made it to the office building and were told to enter by the secretary. When they entered they stood in a line with their hands behind their backs waiting to hear what their first mission would be.

"Well aren't you three respectful." The mine boss said as he looked them over. "Riku I've always know you were going to be a great ninja, and Naruto you've changed a lot. You're not the little kid who came running into my office to start mining. Yukiko it seems like all the hardships you've gone through to become a ninja has finally paid off. I'm expecting great thing from you." The three genin were all smiling from the praise. "I guess you three are eager to get your first mission." The mine boos said with a smile. "Naruto I think you'll like your first mission. I'm letting you go see you family. Your first mission will be in Konoha." The three genin were shocked. The mine boss however just put his elbow on his desk and rested his head in his hand. He had a cunning smile. "Oh I'm sorry was I not supposed to know about you family Naruto."


	4. Trip to the Leaf

"How do you know about that?" Naruto asked, but he didn't sound angry he just sounded curious.

"I've known for longer then you have." The mine boss said still holding onto his grin. "My spy network is far better then you give me credit for. I've had my anbu watching you for a while now. I heard about Riku and his theory which is utter crap by the way. Did you really believe that Minato exiled his son and then didn't know where to find him." Riku looked embarrassed at that statement. "Anyway about your mission you three will be getting information about the nine tails Jinchuuriki in other words Naruto's sister. You will find out as much as you can without being detected. Are there any questions?"

"Just two, but they don't having anything to do with the mission." Naruto said.

"Ask away." The mine boss said.

"First how long have you known that I was Minato's son?" Naruto asked.

"Well I've had my suspicions since you were dropped off at the orphanage which isn't as unsecured as the other nations might think. It wasn't until you grew up and started looking so much like him that I was sure by the way good job Riku for giving him a nickname. It was a good idea so you wouldn't accidently use his real name." The mine boos said.

"Second what would you have done if I tried to go back to Konoha?" Naruto asked and the temperate in the room dropped.

"If you would have left I would have sent anbu to kill you. Can't let the world know we are actually a ninja village. I know it sounds cruel, but that's what I would have done." The mine boss said.

The room waited to hear what Naruto was going to say, but he just smiled. "Don't worry about it any other village would have done the same, but they wouldn't have told me that planned to kill me, so it's all good."

"I'm glad you see it like that Naruto." The mine boss said. "Well now that were done you should head out for Konoha." The three genin nodded their heads and walked out the door. "Wait Riku can you stay here for a minute." Riku stopped and headed back to his desk. "I'm sure you already guessed what I'm going to tell you."

Riku smiled. "There's no way we're going to Konoha just to spy on the Jinchuuriki. I know you already have enough information on her." Riku said confidently.

The mine boss leaned back in his chair. "You always were very bright. Yes while I would like more information on her it is not necessary. What I really want is for you to do watch Naruto. He might say he's loyal to the village now, but it's easy to say that when you don't know what your real home is like. He might find out that he actually wants to stay there and if he does I want you to kill him."

"I understand sir." Riku said and gave a polite bow before he left. 

* * *

*Outside Konoha*

The newly assigned genin could see the wall. They were dressed like merchants and Naruto had on a straw hat to cover his hair since the merchants normally didn't wear hoods. They had a small wagon with them. They decided to get into the village it would be easiest to pose as merchants from Takumi which wasn't too far from the truth. They had a bunch of weapons that Yukiko and her family made and had already made the arguments to enter the village.

They stopped at the front gate and handed the two guards their entry papers which they barley looked at before they let them pass though. "Well that was easy." Yukiko said.

"I know I thought they would at least flip the paper over to see who signed." Riku said. "I'm kind of disappointed it took me a long time to come up with convincing names."

While Yukiko and Riku were talking, Naruto was looking around taking ever thing in. This is the place that he could have grown up in if things had gone differently. Naruto didn't necessary like it thought for one it was too bright. With most of his day spent in the mine and all of his stealth training all this sunlight made him slightly uncomfortable. There was one other thing that annoyed the hell out Naruto, and it was the genin. They were everywhere Naruto counted four just on the street they were on. He knew that other villages were a lot more lenient on their genin exams, but this was just ridicules. Did they pass everyone who wanted to become a ninja? The worst part was they were walking like they were better than everyone else. Naruto remembered the pain he felt on his one-on-one test with the examiner and was confident that these genin never felt anything like it.

It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the store front they rented. It was pretty small, but it didn't matter since their main goal wasn't to sell their products. There was a small back room which would act as their secret base of operations. They would need to come up with a plan, but first they had to get the store ready. They unpacked all the weapons and started setting them up around the store. It took them a little over two hours to get everything set up, and then they met in the back room.

"So how are we going to do this?" Yukiko asked.

"Well first we'll always need someone to manage the store, so we should probably head out in groups of two." Riku said.

"We also can't exactly set up anything inside the Hokage's mansion because even when he's not there that place is going to be crawling with anbu." Naruto said.

"So where is a place we can spy on her and won't be heavily guarded?" Riku asked. They all thought about it for a while until Yukiko came up with an idea.

"The academy that place can't be too guarded." Yukiko said.

"You're right we could easily spy on her from there." Naruto said.

"Alright let come up with a plan." Riku said.

The next day Naruto was standing outside the academy except he wasn't Naruto. He had henged into a civilian girl who wanted to be a ninja. Her name was Sakura, and real one wouldn't be coming to school today because she was sick due to Riku's poison. It was kind of sad actually Riku only gave her a minor stomach flu and she still stayed home sick. The poison he gave Yukiko was a hundred times worse.

Naruto started walking towards the academy. He knew what class he was in as well as all the names of the people that were in his class because he stole the class rooster. His teacher Iruka would just think he missed placed it. Yukiko was right this place didn't have a single guard.

As Naruto walked into the academy he spotted the big tree that was inside the fence were he knew Yukiko was hiding. Her job was to alert Naruto if the real Sakura came to school which Naruto doubted, but you never knew what could happen. She could also spy Michiko when they came out to train. Riku was looking after the shop so he wasn't here. Naruto walked into the classroom ready for his first of school. 

* * *

Michiko was sitting in class talking to Hinata when Sakura opened the door. "Hey Sakura." Michiko said.

Sakura gave a polite wave and walked over to them, but before she could Ino came rushing through the door. "Hey forehead don't think just because you got here first means you get to sit by Sasuke!" Ino screamed.

Sakura gave a polite smile and said. "That's ok Ino you can sit by Sasuke today. I was going to spend some time with Michiko."

Michiko was shocked Sakura giving up the chance to sit with Sasuke the world must be ending. Ino apparently didn't know what was going on either because she just stood there as Sakura walked over to Michiko and took a seat.

"Ok who are you and what have you done with Sakura?" Michiko said.

Sakura laughed at that. "Don't worry it's still me I thought I just let Ino have her fun." She said. But before their conversation could get underway Iruka came through the door.

"Ok class I have some great news for you." He said as the whole class went silent. "Pop quiz," as he held up a bunch of tests and the whole class groaned. Iruka passed out the test and the class went to work.

Michiko was having trouble. She didn't know anything on this test. It was all about chakra nature and their disadvantages and advantages. It was multiple choice so she ended up guessing on most of them. She looked around to see how everyone else was doing, and saw Sakura blazing through it like it was nothing. Michiko guessed she shouldn't be surprised Sakura was a book-worm after all. Sakura finished her test in less than ten minutes.

Michiko was pretty mad at how her friend seemed to find the test easy while she was struggling with ever question. Sakura even started spinning her pencil in boredom, and this only serviced to make Michiko more frustrated. Sakura however dropped her pencil and this made Michiko feel slightly better. What she didn't notice however is when Sakura went to pick up her pencil she reached into Michiko bag and stole her notes.

When the test was finally over they all went outside to get some training done. Today would be a one-on-one spare. The fights were in a small ring and in order to win you had to push you opponent out of the ring or Iruka had to declare a winner. You weren't allowed to knock out your opponent. Most of the fights weren't too impressive. It almost always ended up in the students charging head on flailing their fists around without any strategy. No one noticed but Yukiko almost burst out laughing more than once from her position in the tree.

The only people who actually showed any skill were Sasuke who in his fight against Choji easily kicked him out of the ring. The fight between Kiba and Shikamaru was probably the saddest fight all day. It started when Kiba charged straight at Shikamaru as fast as he could. Shikamaru was unconcerned however as he simply sidestepped Kiba. Kiba couldn't stop himself and ended up running right out of the ring.

"The next fight will be between Michiko and Sakura." Iruka said. Sakura and Michiko gave each other a smile before they entered the ring. Michiko got into the standard academy fighting stance. Sakura however got into a stance that no one had ever seen her use before. She had her left arm behind her back while her right arm was in front of her with her hand opened. Michiko was surprised as was the rest of the class. The class knew that Michiko was one of the best taijutsu fighters in their class. So how did Sakura plan to win if she only used one hand and didn't even make a fist?

The fight began with Michiko throwing punches at Sakura's face, and even though they were quick Sakura managed to block everyone on them by just using the palm of her hand. Michiko was getting frustrated not just because she couldn't hit Sakura, but because Sakura wasn't even trying. The entire fight she hadn't thrown a single punch. This is when the fight started going downhill. Michiko slowly got angary and angary until she just started launching a barge of ineffective punches very similar to the sloppy punches of the pervious fights. Sakura kept blocking without breaking a sweat until Michiko threw a wide hook. This left herself wide opened and Sakura kicked her in the stomach. Michiko fell to her knees and Iruka called the fight. Everyone couldn't believe that Sakura had beat Michiko so easily. Even Sasuke was a little impressed.

The school day ended soon after that and Michiko stormed off. "Since when did Sakura become such a good ninja?" She muttered to herself. It wasn't like she hated Sakura. Michiko just didn't like to be beaten and Sakura did it twice. On top of that she couldn't find her notebook anywhere, and if it turned out she did lose it then she would get a lecture from her mom and probably be grounded. Michiko was having a horrible day, and it sure didn't help that when she got home and found Jiraiya sitting on the couch. 

* * *

Sakura was walking away from the academy checking back every once in a while to see if she was being followed. When she determined that she wasn't being followed she ducked into an alley. Naruto came out of the alley dressed in his hat and merchant clothes.

"Don't you think you did a little too well in the spar." Yukiko said as she walked up beside Naruto.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Probably but the poison Riku gave Sakura is designed to last for two days, so when she comes back to school and apologizes for being sick Iruka will just think she's talking one day not two. Hopefully by that time they'll have forgetting about Sakura stellar spar."

"So what's your sister like?" Yukiko asked in a playful tone.

Naruto chuckled at her. "Well we definitely look-alike, but that about all similarity we share. She has a very short attention span and would probably have difficulty following any complex plan let alone creating one. She has decent taijutsu skills at least when compared to the rest of the class. The big problem is she gets angry to easily as I'm sure you saw when we spared. I didn't see any of her ninjutsu or genjutsu skill, but judging on how much trouble she had on the test I don't think she has much in those areas. Plus her notebook is more like a diary than anything else." Naruto said as he held up Michiko notebook.

"Was the test really that easy?" Yukiko asked.

"It sure was." Naruto said throwing his head back and laughing at it. "First off it was multiply choice so much easier they the short answers we had to give. Second if these questions were on are genin exam they all would have been bingo questions just because the knowledge was so basic. Riku was right if I would have come back here I would have been so weak, but brought up to believe that I was strong. That's a quick way to die don't you think?"

"Yeah I mean what's up with this village it's like every ninja believes they could take on S-class missing Nin." Yukiko said.

They made it back to their shop. Riku was standing behind the counter with a bored look on his face. "So how'd it go?" He asked.

"My sisters nothing special epically considering she's the same age as us and doesn't seem to know basic ninjutsu principles." Naruto said.

"I guess we can't expect much from her." Riku said sounding rather disappointed." "But we still have to stay on track find out as much about her as possible; though things just got a lot harder."

"What do you mean?" Yukiko asked.

"Jiraiya is in the village and that's a huge problem." Riku said. "He's in control of the one of the largest spy networks in the elemental nations, and that means he knows how spying works and is going to be on the lookout. Us on the other hand are only on are first mission, so we need to be careful around him."

Riku stopped talking and then Naruto stomach started to growl. Naruto was really embarrassed and started to rub the back of his head. "Naruto did you have anything to eat today?" Yukiko asked like a concerned mother.

Naruto kept rubbing the back of his head. "Well I didn't realize that I had to bring a lunch to the academy, so I kind of didn't have one." Naruto said awkwardly.

Riku almost fell because he was laughing so hard. Yukiko gave him a dirty look before turning back to Naruto. "Then how about we go get something to eat?" She asked him.

"Sure," Naruto said, and they started walking out the door, but Riku got himself under control and stopped them.

"Hey I'm hungry too, and I've been at the shop all day so how about one of you watches it." Riku said.

"Sorry Riku, but you see me and Naruto are both really tired from are mission so we need to relax. I'm sure you can watch the store for a little while longer." Yukiko said sweetly, but when she was almost out the door she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him.

As they were walking away from the shop they could here Riku yell. "Yeah that was real mature."

Yukiko and Naruto walked around town trying to find somewhere to eat. They finally decided on a ramen stand called Ramen Ichiraku. It was small, but the smell was so good Yukiko and Naruto couldn't resist. They were severed by and old man and his daughter. When they got their food they each took a bite and their eyes lit up. It was really good, and Naruto made sure to tell the owner that more than once.

They were enjoying their meal when someone ran up behind them. "Hey Teuchi, Ayame!" The voice that sounded female said.

"Hey it's good to see you Mrs. Namikaze." Teuchi said. Yukiko and Naruto almost had a heart attack. It was one thing to spy on an academy student, but begin this close to the Hokage's wife was just a little too uncomforting. Not to mention what would happen if she found out they were spying on her daughter. You didn't need to be a spy to know that Kushina was very protective of her daughter.

Naruto was scared but for other reasons. It would be very bad if they found out who he was. He heard that mothers know when their children are nearby Naruto was now hoping that was a lie.

"Will it be the usual?" Teuchi asked.

"Yeah," Kushina said and took a seat right by Yukiko. Yukiko and Naruto sat in silence to afraid to speak. They both knew that this was a dead giveaway that they were nervous and they should keep on talking like they had before, but saying it was a lot easier than doing it. It also didn't help that Kushina was looking at them.

"I like your hair." Kushina said to Yukiko.

"Thanks." Yukiko said trying to avoided eye contacted.

Kushina however wasn't having it and grabbed Yukiko shoulder spinning her around so they were facing each other. "Listen I know you must be nervous talking to the Hokage's wife, but believe it or not I'm pretty laid back." Kushina said with a smile.

Yukiko seemed to become more relaxed. "I'm sorry it just we are merchants, so we haven't been in this town to long and when the Hokage's wife comes along and seat right next to you like it nothing it can be a little unnerving."

Kushina looked happy that she was able to get Yukiko to talk. "That's ok I completely understand what it is like coming to a new place and having no idea how things work, but you seem a little young to be a merchant?"

"Well my day is the one who actually owns the store we're just here helping him out." Yukiko said.

"I see." Kushina said. "You know I have a daughter your age I think you two would get along very well."

"Well it's too bad that we aren't going to be in town for too long." Yukiko said starting to feel really bad for lying to Kushina.

"You know your friend doesn't talk much does he?" Kushina asked.

"Yeah he gets really nervous around people he doesn't know, so don't expect much from him." Yukiko said. After Yukiko got over her nervousness she had Kushina actually had a nice time just talking to each other even though Yukiko never gave Kushina her name. Naruto however stayed silent the whole time.

Just like that four days went by. Nothing of importance happened for the mission. It seemed like the first day was really the only day that they got any information. The days would normally have Yukiko and Naruto going somewhere while Riku ran the store much to his displeasure.

Riku was always bored out of his mind and kept wondering how he always got stuck managing the store. However today was going to become a lot more interesting when a certain girl with blond hair and her two friends walked in the door.

Riku couldn't believe Michiko walked into their store. He was finally going to be able to do something other than watch this damn store. He hadn't even seen Michiko up until now and the only reason he knew it was her was because of the description Naruto gave him.

She was with two of her friends. Sakura which Riku only knew because he poisoned her and Hinata which he knew because she was one of the important people that they had to know about before coming here.

They weren't doing much just looking around the store at all the different weapons they had. Michiko look especially interested in a tanto not to different from Naruto's own tanto. Riku knew he had to get information and he was going to do in with his specialty: seduction. "Hello and welcome. I'm so happy you three ladies would come to this establishment. I hope you can find what you are looking for Miss. Michiko." Riku said giving a polite bow.

The three girls were taken off guard. First off he was their age and second that he knew Michiko's name. "How do you know my name?" Michiko asked.

Riku faked embarrassment. "Crap I wasn't supposed to say that. I'm going to get in so much trouble." Riku started freaking-out.

Michiko ran up to him and tried to calm him down. "Hey want the big deal all I wanted to know was how you knew my name."

Riku calmed down after a couple seconds. "Well you see before we came here my boss had me make sure I knew of all the richest people in town so could get them to spend more money. You were one of the people I had to know and you were just so pretty that I just forgot that I wasn't supposed to use your name."

Michiko had a slight blush for Riku statement. "It's fine I don't really mind that you knew my name most of the people in the village know it anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised."

Riku became very happy about this. "Really you don't mind are you sure?" Riku said sounding like a school boy who just avoided punishment.

Michiko was surprised on how big a deal he made of the situation. It wasn't like knowing here name was a big deal. "It's fine really."

Riku brightened up and gave Michiko a big hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Michiko couldn't stop the blush forming on her face.

"N-no problem." Michiko stuttered out.

Riku jumped to his feet as if nothing happened. "All right then let me show you around." He grabbed Michiko by the hand and walked her around the store with Sakura and Hinata following her not sure what to make of this situation.

After Riku lead them around for a little bit Michiko decided to buy a set of kunais and a kunai bag since she didn't have one, and the truth was she thought her heart might explode from nervousness if she didn't leave soon. "Excellent choice let me just ring this up for you and I'll even put the kunais in." Riku said and went in the back room.

When Riku went in the back he dropped the happy store clerk smile and got to work. He took out one of the kunais Michiko had gotten and quickly drew a simple seal on it and applied some of his lighting chakra to it. The seal was small but if you took a good look at the kunai you could easily see it. That was just a risk he was going to have to take. He quickly packed the kunai bag and when out to give it to Michiko. They left soon afterwards. 

* * *

"Well that sure was interesting." Sakura said.

"Yeah I mean I can't believe he hit on us." Michiko said.

"Well he really only hit on you." Hinata pointed out.

"That a good thing. What if he hit on me." Sakura said. "Sasuke would get so jealous that he would probably go and beat him up." Sakura said, but had a dreamy look in her eye imaging it.

"At least I got some nice stuff." Michiko said patting her new kunai bag.

"Hey Michiko aren't you supposed to be home right now." Hinata said.

Michiko stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the time. "Crap! I need to get home see you guys later." She said running as fast as her legs could carry her.

When she got home she was greeted with her mom giving her an angry look. "Hey Kaa-san sorry I'm late." She said trying her best to force herself to shirk and get away from her.

Her mom didn't look any happier. "We'll talk about this later, but right now we're having a family discussion." Michiko saw that her dad and even Jiraiya were seating in the couch behind her mom. Michiko went to sit in the couch opposite of them, but when she tried to sit her kunai bag got in the way and made it very uncomfortable so she took it off and set it on the couch.

Kushina took a seat next to Minato. Michiko expected to be told something really important but no. They just gave her the same lecture about how she was almost a ninja and she needed to start training and who she thought she would work well with on a team and so on. It was getting pretty boring and Michiko was getting frustrated mostly because it seemed that they thought she couldn't make her own choices.

But it all went to hell after her mom said one thing. "You also need to be more responsible like getting home on time or keeping track of your notes."

That made Michiko mad. "Why do I even have a curfew in the first place!" she yelled jumping from her chair. "I'm almost a ninja and you still treat me like a toddler!"

Kushina jumped out of her chair too. "Well maybe if you if you had any sort of self-control then you wouldn't need a curfew, and it doesn't matter how much you hate it you are my daughter so will follow the rules and come home by your curfew!" Kushina finished.

Michiko was so pissed that she was shacking. "Naruto is your son and he hasn't been home in ten years." She said just loud enough for everyone to hear. Then she ran upstairs to her room.

Kushina had tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe that Michiko would say something like that, but just thinking about Naruto hurt her so bad I she pretty much collapsed back into her chair. Minato put his arm around her trying his best to comfort her. "It will be alright Kushina she was just angry."

They however weren't the only ones who heard what Michiko said. The kunai bag was still on the couch. The seal Riku made had his lighting chakra in it and it acted as a kind of cord that connected to a similar seal Riku had back at the shop. This let him hear everything, and he wasn't the only one Naruto and Yukiko were also with him. The seal itself would also last about a week before it ran out of chakra, but the seal would disappear once it did. Riku could also destroy the seal remotely before it ran out of chakra if he had too.

Kushina was still crying, but between sobs she managed to get out a few words. "Minato I know she doesn't like the curfew, but I'm so scared. What if something happened to her?"

"It's not like she's leaving the village nothing is going to happen to her." Minato said calmingly.

"Naruto was in the village and something happened to him." Kushina said breaking down in tears.

Riku kept a close eye on Naruto because if he was going to defect and go home to his family it would be now. Unfortunately Naruto expression was unreadable.

"Listen Kushina it was different back then the village was in chaos you can't blame yourself." Jiraiya said.

"Your right it was different. Back then Minato and I could use Chakra, but now if something were to happen to Michiko we couldn't do anything." Kushina said.

"WHATTTTTT!" Riku, Yukiko and Naruto shouted so loud the entire village must have heard them.

"Kushina don't say that. It a secret what if someone were to hear you. Jiraiya said and even though Riku couldn't see them he could feel Jiraiya looking around to try and see if it was possible someone could have heard them.

"Lay off Jiraiya no one going to hear me in my own house." Kushina said, but Riku knew that Jiraiya was still looking around and then as almost as he was in the room he felt Jiraiya's eyes land on the kunai bag.

This was only confirmed when Jiraiya started talking. "Hey Minato who's kunai bag is that?'

"I think it Michiko she probably just got it." Minato replied then Riku heard Jiraiya's footsteps moving closer and that was it. Riku overloaded the seal causing it to disappear. Now Riku wasn't a master sealer, so he didn't know if Jiraiya could tell if a seal had been there or if something like that was even possible, but Riku wasn't taking chances.

"Ok guys were leaving." Riku said looking at Naruto to see him he would reject, but he didn't. They packed up the store and were out of the village in less than two hours. Riku couldn't believe it they were here for a glorified trust exercise and ended up stumbling on the biggest secret the leaf had to offer.


	5. Missions

Michiko was in her room under her sheets sobbing. She hadn't meant to say those thing they just kind of came out. She knew she should go apologize for bringing up Naruto, but her pride wouldn't allow it. So she was going to hide in her room until things calmed down. Too bad that wasn't going to happen.

There was a knock on her door and her mom's voice. "Michiko can I come in?" She said softly. Michiko stopped crying and stayed silent hoeing that her mom would just go away. "I know you're in there so I'm coming in." Kushina said and opened the door.

Michiko pretended that she was asleep. Her mom still walked over to her bed and took a seat. She put her hand on Michiko head and started rubbing her hair. They stayed like this for a while until Kushina started speaking. "Oh Michiko looks like you hit your pre-teen years already and here I thought that you would be a ninja and off on missions so I wouldn't have to deal with it. I guess moms just can escape this fate. I know you're mad, but I also know you didn't mean what you said. You want Naruto back just as bad as me and your father do. I also believe that you'll be the one to find him because you're the one who wants to see him the most. Not even Minato or I can compare to the bond twins have even if they never meet." Kushina stayed there for a little longer before getting up a leaving the room.

When she left Michiko let the tears fall. She didn't realize just how much she wanted to see her brother. She had always wanted to find him, but now she was determined to find him. "Naruto I'll find you someday." Michiko whispered.

* * *

*Takumi Village*

The mine boss was very interested. Not only did his new genin team come back with Naruto which meant Naruto didn't try to defect, but they also told him something very interesting. They had just given him their report and Konoha's biggest secret. The Hokage and his wife couldn't use chakra. He was very impressed with their work it was only their first mission and they had already gathered more information than his anbu squads. Now this didn't mean that they were super bad ass ninja it just meant they got lucky and the he wasn't going to boost their ego because of a fluke. They did have great potential however. "You guys did well take some time off and I'll call you when I have a mission for you."

Naruto, Riku and Yukiko gave a polite bow and left. When they got out of the building they dropped their formal attitudes. "Man, are first mission." Naruto said already excited for his next one.

"Don't get too excited." Riku warned. "Things are going to get harder for here. I bet the next mission we'll have to kill people."

"I can handle taking a life." Naruto spat back.

"You say that now but in the moment do you really think you'll be able to kill someone who's begging you to spare them." Riku said.

"I bet I can do it easier then you can." Naruto said butting heads with Riku.

"Boys don't fight I'm sure you two will be fine when it comes to killing." Yukiko said with a smile.

"Uh thanks, I guess." Naruto said.

"Hey Yukiko you don't seem that worried about having to kill someone what's the deal?" Riku asked.

"Well you see I've already killed." Yukiko said rubbing the back of her head.

"What!" Riku and Naruto yelled.

"Well you see one day a guy tried to rob the store and I was sharing some kunais at the time, and well I just kind of threw it at his head without really thinking. It wasn't so bad." Yukiko said. Naruto and Riku were a little shocked to hear this since she said it like it was standard procedure to kill someone while sharpening a kunai. Riku suddenly had a new-found respect for Yukiko.

"Well after Yukiko laid that bombshell on us. I think we need to celebration a mission well done, and I know just the place." Riku said.

Riku took them to a club. It wasn't a strip club like Naruto had thought when he first saw it, but the way the place was set up made it seem like the stripers would walk in any moment, and they might of well have. All the fan girls in the village had heard of their return and had jumped them at the club swarming around Naruto and Riku and also giving Yukiko dirty looks. They kept saying that they were such great ninjas. How they didn't even get a single scratch on their first mission. Riku didn't seem to want to tell them that they didn't do any fighting so there wasn't any reason they should have got hurt, but Riku also seemed to enjoy himself a lot more then he should have. He was also getting really drunk.

Now Naruto was also having a good time with the girls and drinking too; just not as much as Riku. Yukiko was also drinking a little, but that was probably just to forget about the glares she was getting. In the end they all left the club drunk and tired. Riku looked like he would pass out on the spot. Some of the ninja they past to get home just couldn't believe that this was Takumi's best genin team. That night Naruto spent over the toilet.

A couple days later they found themselves standing in front of the mine boss's desk waiting for their next mission. "You guys did pretty well on your first mission so I'm giving you something a little harder." He said. "There is a certain person we've been asked to take care of. A kid, low-genin level. Basically Kumogakure captured this kid because he has a bloodline. They wanted him to try and strengthen their military. However he escaped and is trying to get back to his village; they wouldn't tell use which one. The point is Kumogakure's ninja can't be seen chasing this kid so they asked us to help. Your job is to kill him before he gets home. Here's his last known position and his picture." He threw them to Riku. The boy didn't have any distinguishing features and looked pretty average which would make him that much harder to find. "Are there any questions?" The mine boss asked.

"Should we be worried about his bloodline?" Riku asked.

"No it seems he hasn't been able to activate it which is the reason he was caught so easily." The mine boss said.

"How can Kumogakure request help from use if they don't know Takumi has a ninja force?" Naruto asked.

"Well they know their requesting help from someone, but they don't know who. They sent ninjas to the black market to find someone who could take care of it and they found some of our ninjas. Now they probably think their hiring some rouge ninjas and that's just what we want them to think." The mine boss said. With their questions answered the genin team left to find this runaway ninja.

* * *

"So does are target have a name?" Naruto asked. They were currently in a remote village in the middle of nowhere, but this is where their target had been last seen. The sighting was already a day old and it took them a day to get here so they were already two days behind, so the odds of their target still being here were practically zero. But you have to start somewhere.

"According to our information no." Riku said. "But if he did he'd have to be a complete idiot to use it. Isn't that right Dwarf?"

Naruto gave him a deadly look. Naruto not only had to be called Dwarf on this mission, but he also had his hood up to hide his hair. Now it was unlikely that Konoha ninja would walk though here, but you could never be too careful. However even Naruto felt good being in his ninja gear it was a lot more comfortable then the merchant outfits they wore on their last mission. "We should just start looking for him." Naruto said.

"Aright let's spilt up." Yukiko said and they all headed off in their own direction.

They hadn't even been separated for five minutes when they meet up aging.

"So you guys had the same idea?" Yukiko said.

"Well it's pretty obvious. I don't even know why we spilt up in the first place." Riku said.

"We don't know he went this way we still haven't found any evidence." Yukiko said.

"Well if he did then he must want us to find him." Naruto said. The truth was that if you started at Kumogakure and then went to this village it's a straight line. Which is odd since there are plenty of other villages he could have gone to. So if he kept following the line then the spot they were at now would be where he left.

"Let's just look and see if he really did go this way." Yukiko suggested. It didn't take them long at all to find trampled bushes and shoe prints in the mud.

"Good lord are all ninjas trained this bad?" Naruto said "I mean didn't he learned you're not supposed to make a bee-line towards your village when you're running away or to cover his tracks. I mean come on he's not even tree hopping. How did he escape in the first place?"

"Come on let's just keep going." Riku said and they started hopping along the trees keeping an eye out for marks that would indicate a change in direction, but they highly doubt they find any.

It only took them half a day before they finally found something. It was a camp that was more than likely their target's. It was petty dark when they arrived so there was little chance of them being spotted although with their targets current lack of any skill what so ever he probably wouldn't have spotted them in the day. He didn't even stray from the line to build his camp. It was like he just got tired and stopped right where he was. Naruto, Riku and Yukiko were hiding in the tress waiting for him to come out of his tent so they could confirm it was their target.

It wasn't long before a kid a little older than Riku came out of the tent. He had black hair standard civilian clothes which would have been a good disguise if it wasn't for the kunai holder on his hip. They watched him for a little bit before he went over to a pile of logs.

"No he isn't." Naruto whispered. Normally Naruto would have never said a word on a stealth mission, but it was oblivious by now that this guy was of no real threat to them. Then the kid did it he lit a fire and the smoke raised through the trees. No cover no anything to stop the smoke from giving away his position to everybody in the entire forest. Then he just sat by it trying to get warm.

They decided that they had watched him enough and just to kill him. Now normally they would have killed him quick and without him knowing, but this guy was so stupid they felt the need to torment him before his death. They jumped down right in front of him.

He was startled so bad that he fell on his back. "Who the hell are you guys?" He said standing back up and getting into a defensive position.

"We're just the people here to kill you." Naruto said darkly.

Now most people would have be afraid to hear this, but their target started chuckling. "You were sent to kill me. You three are younger than me what do you think you can do." He reached into his kunai bag and got three kunais. "I bet you didn't know this, but I graduated top of my class in the academy. So why don't you three go to hell!" He threw his kunais one at each of them. They were all stop effortlessly Yukiko threw her own kunai and they clashed in the air. Naruto took out his tanto and blocked it .Riku put his finger though the ring at the end when it was in mid-air and let it spin around his finger.

"So still think we can't kill you." Riku said. The boy's face went pale and he started backing up before he made a run for it. Before he was out of sight Riku threw the kunai he had around his finger into the boy's back. There was a grunt of pain before he was out of sight.

They started following him. It wasn't hard since there was now a trail of blood leading the way. Apparently they were at the edge of the forest because they soon hit a dirt road. Whatever cover the boy had was gone now and they could see him easily.

He was running to some sort of castle. "Fire Ball Jutsu" Yukiko shouted. She launched a mid-sized fire ball at their target. He saw it coming and tried to doge, but the kunai in his back caused him some pain which caused him to not be able to dodge properly. The fire ball hit his leg and his pants caught on fire. His leg had blood running down it and was red and blistered. Even thought he was in pain he managed to get inside the castle.

"Ok I think we've had enough fun with him." Naruto said and they went inside. The castle was dark and probably would have been scary to most. Especially with the groan that came from the boy who was lying on the floor in his own blood.

Naruto walked over to him and placed his foot under his stomach. He flipped him over which caused the boy some pain, but now he was lying on his back. "Please just let me go I'm begging you." The boy said with tears in his eyes. "I just want to see my family. Don't you want to see yours every time you come home from a mission?"

Naruto squatted down so he was closer to the boy's ear. "Want to know the truth? I don't give a damn about my family." Naruto said with an evil smile. Then he pulled out his tanto and the boy's face was twisted in fear before Naruto brought it down on his neck collecting the head to prove the mission was a successes.

"Damn Naruto that was brutal." Riku said with a smile.

Naruto was confused for a minute until he looked back at the body and realized he was still holding the head and became a little embarrassed "Sorry guess I just got caught up in the moment." He then sealed the head in a scroll.

They were about to leave when a long tough shot out of nowhere and tried to grab Yukiko. Luckily Yukiko jumped out of the way just in time and the tough retreated back into the castle. "Was that a tough?!" Yukiko screamed, but when she looked at Naruto and Riku they seemed to be lost in thought. "Guys are you ok?" She walked up them and was about to wave her hand in their faces when they turned to look at each other so suddenly it scared her and she fell on her butt.

"We must be the luckiest genin team alive." Naruto said.

"Who says the whole team is lucky because I'm going to be the one to get it." Riku said.

"Like hell I'm going to be the one to get it." Naruto said and they both ran off in opposite directions. Yukiko was very confused before she realized they were going to leave her. She got up a decided to follow Naruto. "Hey wait up."

Yukiko and Naruto were running down halls at random and Yukiko was getting tired because Naruto seemed to have unlimited energy and wouldn't slow down. "Naruto can you please tell me what you are doing?" Yukiko said.

"That tough that tried to grab you earlier was some sort of animal." Naruto said. "Since it was huge it can only mean one thing. That is was a summoning creature."

"Ok so why does it matter?" Yukiko asked.

Naruto looked a little annoyed. "If it's a summoning creature then there has to be either the summoner or the summoning contract nearby and I don't think it a summoner. So that means that there is an unsigned contract somewhere in this castle. Riku and I have wanted a summoning contract ever since we knew about them. So I have to be the one to get it."

"But more than one person can sign a contract so why can't you two share." Yukiko said.

Naruto gave her a look like she just said the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. "Are you serious? There is no way I'm sharing with Riku and there is no way he sharing with me!" Naruto yelled which seemed to give him a burst of energy and he ran even faster than before.

They went running all around the mansion. Even when the walls turned to flesh and tried to eat them the only thing Naruto thought of was getting the contract before Riku. They ran everywhere and then they saw it. A scroll with a lizard on it Naruto didn't even hesitated and jumped right for it. When he grabbed it the mansion just disappeared.

Even though they were up in a tower before they were now on the ground now. Naruto had the contract in his hand and looked the happiest Yukiko had ever seen him. Then Riku who was also standing on the ground with them saw it. Riku fell to his knees and stared hitting the ground. "Damn it! Damn it!"

They decided to tree jump back home to hopefully be back by sunrise. It was pretty silent on the way back except when Naruto would talk about his new summoning contract and how he couldn't wait to sign it just to piss Riku off.

They didn't make it back before sunrise, but it was still pretty early. They went to the Mine boss's office to give their report and their targets head. Naruto made sure to go into great detail about how he got the lizard summoning contract. The boss told them to take a few days off and for Naruto to sign the contract and to be ready for even harder mission when they came back.

A day later Naruto and Yukiko were in the mines because Naruto was going to sign the contract for some reason Riku declined to come and witness it. "This is going to be so great." Naruto said rubbing his hand together. He unrolled the contract out on the floor. Naruto was surprised to see that the last signature was probably more than 200 years old. Naruto signed the contract in his blood.

"So do you think the lizards will really accept you as their summoner?" Yukiko asked.

"Hard to say but there's only one way to find out." Naruto made the necessary hand signs and slammed his hand on the ground. A cloud of smoke appeared and when it was gone it left a red lizard with brown eyes about the size of a small bird.

"Hey are you the one that summoned me?" The lizard asked Naruto.

"Yes." Naruto said. "I want to become the lizard summoner."

"Ok." The lizard said. "What's your name? My name is Scale."

"Naruto, but wait don't I have to do some sort of trial to prove that I'm good enough to be your summoner?" He asked.

Scale just sighed like he didn't want to explain it. "Naruto are boss has been stuck in that castle for who knows how long. We've needed a new summoner for a while now and you seem like a good ninja. So you get the contract. If that is all I'll be leaving to tell the rest of the clan about are new master." With that he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well that was a lot easier than I thought." Yukiko said.

Naruto was smiling like an idiot. "It obvious those lizards could see I was already a great ninja, so they didn't even need to test me."

"Yeah." Yukiko said with a sweat drop.

Naruto and the rest of the team continued to go on missions for months. While they never went on any B-ranked mission, they were pretty close doing high C-ranks. The mission they were currently on was an assassination mission. They had to kill some nobleman leaving Konoha to return to his home village. They were hiding in the tress waiting for his carriage to ride by.

While they were waiting Naruto felt something land on his shoulder, it was one of his lizards who was invisible. "What you got for me?" Naruto asked.

"The nobleman is further up the road and will be here in about five minutes." The lizard said. "He's riding with ten guards they don't seem like ninja, but he just came from Konoha so it's highly likely that there are some ninja guarding him."

"Alright did you hear that guys." Naruto said. Yukiko and Riku gave him a nod. "Ok then let's get ready." The lizard disappeared as Naruto pulled up his hood.

They came five minutes later they came just like the lizard said. They were going along without any problems until the road exploded in front of them. The guards were so shocked they couldn't react to the hundreds of kunais now raining down on them. Seven were killed and three were too injured to move.

Three figures jumped down from the trees and headed for the carriage. They had to confirm it was really their target before they killed him. "Well that was easier than I thought it would be." Naruto said from under his hood. Right after he said that three other figures jumped out of nowhere and blocked their path. Naruto, Riku and Yukiko jumped backwards to get some distance.

The new arrives looked to be a little older than them. Now even if they were ninjas then it shouldn't have been such a big deal, but these ninja seemed a lot better than any genin they faced before after all they did seem to know the attack was coming.

Naruto took a good look at the newcomers. One was a girl with two buns in her brown hair. There was also a boy in a green jumpsuit and had black hair along with the weirdest eye brows Naruto had ever seen. The last one was a boy with his hair in a pony-tail and white eyes with no pupils; Naruto realized he was a hyuga. Now Naruto knew how they had known the attack was coming. If the hyuga was using his eyes to look around the area he would have seen his lizards chakra network regardless if it was invisible.

"How dare you kill these people!" The one in green shouted. "My name is Rock Lee and I vow to take revenge foe these people!" Naruto and the rest of his team sweat dropped. This guy gave his name even before the fight started. Lee's team didn't seem too happy with him either. Maybe they weren't as strong as they thought.

Naruto pulled out his Tanto and everyone else got into a fighting stance. "Don't take it personally it's just are mission." Naruto said. This seemed to make Lee angry and he came rushing at Naruto with speed he wasn't prepared for. Naruto quickly made a cross block with his arms to stop the kick that was coming for his side.

Even though Lee hit Naruto's arm Naruto was pushed back a little and he knew that if he had only block with one arm it would be broken. Naruto wasn't the only having problems when Yukiko came to help him the girl with the buns threw hundreds of kunais at her. There were too many to block so Yukiko had to jump sway from Naruto and fight the girl in a weapons match. Riku was busy fighting the hyuga, so Naruto was on his own.

He shoved Lee's leg away and jumped back it was obvious to keep as much distance as he could with this guy. Naruto went thought a few signs and "Reppushou" (Wind gale). Naruto swung his tanto and a long blade of wind headed for Lee. Lee jumped in the air to avoid it, but when he did Naruto threw a couple kunais at him. Lee unable to move in midair caught all the kunais Naruto threw. "This guy is pretty good." Naruto said to himself. He didn't have too much time to admire his opponent however because Lee had landed and was once aging charging Naruto.

This time Naruto was ready. When Lee tried to kick his head Naruto ducked and cut Lee's chest with his tanto. If Lee was in pain he didn't show it and he actually brought his leg down on Naruto's which he wasn't expecting. He didn't do a lot of damage from the awkward angle Lee was forced to kick from, but it still hurt. They fought like this for a while. Lee was good no doubt about that, but he didn't have as much experience as Naruto. It showed rather heavily when Naruto used wind chakra to increases the range of his tanto and was able to cut Lee more often. Lee was too focused on hitting Naruto to notice that the tanto cut him even though he dogged out of the way. He probably just thought he screwed up the dodge. Now that wasn't to say Naruto was dominating the fight in fact he got hit more than a few times, and the fact this guy was just so strong really brought the damage.

Naruto looked over to see how the other fights were going. Riku looked to be in bad shape. Even though he wasn't bleeding his right arm was hanging rather uselessly by his side. The hyuga he was fighting had several deep cuts on his body and looked like he was struggling to stay on his feet. Naruto knew it was from the poison Riku had on his weapons.

Yukiko was probably the worst out of all of them. She was covered in cuts and she had a partially deep gash on her forehead with blood running down the side of her face. The girl she was fight was also covered in cuts and it seemed that parts of her skin were burned.

Naruto had to stop looking at them since Lee threw a punch at his face which Naruto sidestepped. Lee kept throwing punches, but Naruto dodged them all while moving closer to Lee. When he was within the range of his wind enhanced tanto he knew it was over. All he had to do was slice Lee's neck of course Lee would dodge, but since his tanto had extra range that Lee didn't know about he'd still be hit anyway. With that in mind Naruto swung his tanto, and just like he predicted Lee leaded back to dodge but not far enough.

Just as Naruto was about to cut Lee's throat a blur of green came out of nowhere and kicked Naruto in the stomach so hard that not only did he drop his tanto but the sheath that was secured to his jacket also fell to the ground seemingly following the blade. Naruto chough up blood before flying backwards and hitting a tree: hard.

The sound caused the rest of the fights to stop and look to see what happened. Riku and Yukiko paled while the hyuga and the girl with the buns smiled. Standing there was Konoha's green beast: Maito Gai. The whole team knew enough from the bingo book to know that there was no way they were going to be able to beat him. There only option now was to retreat.

Naruto got up while Riku and Yukiko started backing up. Gai seemed to notice this and with unbelievable speed kick Riku in the ribs and punched Yukiko in the face sending both of them flying backwards next to Naruto.

They knew that this mission was a failure. It was time to cut their losses. Yukiko did some hand signs. "Fusenmei Genzō" (Vision Blur). The genjutsu wouldn't work on the hyuga, but all it needed to do was buy time by stopping Gai. He was supposed to be pretty bad at genjutsu, so when they were sure he was hit by it they got out of there.

By the time Gai broke the genjutsu the ninja were already far away. Lee started to run after then, but Gai grabbed his shoulder. "Wait Lee don't go after them. This mission is already beyond a C-rank. We should have another ninja team take over. Besides we need to get Neji back to the leaf." Gai pointed at Neji who was very pale and looked about ready to pass out.

"I understand Gai-sensei." Lee said feeling bad about almost leaving his injured teammate. Gai picked up Neji so he didn't have to walk. While Tenten picked up the tanto the boy in the hood dropped and checked on the nobleman to tell him what was going on. Lee went to check on the guards who weren't killed in the initial attack only to find out that they had all bleed to death.

"Alright let's get going." Gai said and they headed back to the leaf as fast as they could.

* * *

Naruto, Riku and Yukiko walked back into town bloody and defeated. "Sorry I lost the tanto you gave me." Naruto said.

"It's fine." Yukiko replied. It was the first mission they had failed and it showed. The fan girls that always came to greet them stopped dead when they saw them. Of course they started yelling at Yukiko saying 'that she was the reason their Naruto-chan and Riku-chan were so hurt.' Even some of the adults were saying 'it was a mistake to make a girl a ninja. Just look how hurt she was.' Yukiko looked crushed, but Naruto couldn't really blame then. From outward appearances it looked like Yukiko was hurt way worse the either Naruto or Riku. But in reality, Riku was probably the one hurt the most with his arm just hanging there like that, and Naruto was sure that Gai broke a few ribs with his kick.

Naruto just sent a lizard to give his report instead of going himself. Then he and the rest of the team went to the hospital to get their injuries treated.

* * *

*Konoha*

Minato was in his office doing paper work when Gai, Lee and Tenten walked in. "Gai what are you doing here I thought you weren't supposed to be back till tomorrow." Minato said.

"About that Hokage we were attacked." Gai told the story about their mysterious attackers, and about Neji getting poisoned.

"I see." Minato said. "You made the right decision. That was beyond a C-rank. Did the ninja have any headbands or other markings to tell us what village they were from?"

"Not that I saw Hokage, but Neji mentioned there was a summoning creature that looked like a lizard." Gai said.

"That could help. Summoning contracts a usually passed down a clan, so if I find the clan that uses lizards I can find what village they came from." The Hokage said to himself.

"Also the one in the hood dropped this." Tenten said place a tanto on the Hokage's desk.

Minato picked it up it. "It says 'Dwarf' on the sheath. Is that someone's name? I have to think about it. Gai you and your team can get some rest."

"Thank you." Gai and his team said before leaving.

Minato walked over towards the window thinking about what he just heard. "I wonder who this Dwarf person is?"


End file.
